A Carlotta Carlyle mystery

11 primary works • 17 total works

A Trouble of Fools

by Linda Barnes

Published 1 January 1987

Ms Carlotta Carlyle, a 6'1", red-headed Boston cop, takes on an assignment from a nice little old lady, Mary Devens, and looks like earning some easy money at last. But, as she stumbles into the Mafia-ridden Boston underworld, it looks more like costing her her life. The author has written four "Michael Spraggue Mysteries", and "Lucky Penny" which won the Shamus Award for best P.I. short story and the Anthony Award for best short story.

The Snake Tattoo

by Linda Barnes

Published 1 February 1989

Coyote

by Linda Barnes

Published 1 October 1990

When a mysterious woman asks Carlotta to help locate her missing immigration card, it looks to be a pretty straightforward assignment. This is, until the lady disappears, and the card turns up in the possession of another woman...who just happens to be dead. Suddenly the case is far too intriguing for Carlotta to drop - and when her investigation indicates that her client was somehow connected to her inner-city "little sister" Paolina, Carlotta's got an even bigger stake in seeing it through. Alongside a handsome immigration agent with some secrets of his own, she follows her leads into the treacherous underground world of illegal aliens and those who mercilessly prey upon them. It's a lawless, dangerous territory: a place where the only thing Carlotta can rely on is her own wits, and where nothing - from innocence to life itself - is sacred...

Steel Guitar

by Linda Barnes

Published 1 October 1991

They say you meet all kinds of when you're driving a hack. Hat's certainly the case for Boston PI Carlottta Carlyle, who gets an unexpected fare while moonlighting behind the wheel. It's singer Dee Willis, Carlotta's ex-friend and former band mate, who stole Carlotta's man before clawing her way up the charts. Dee's made the leap from Southie's barrooms to the cover of People magazine, but now she's back in Carlotta's life, bringing with her a load of trouble. She hires Carlotta to track down a mutual friend who's fallen on hard times, but Carlotta soon finds that there's a far more menacing tune being played. Someone is blackmailing Dee, claiming she stole song writing credit's - and the money and fame that came with them. As the spotlight's glare turns as cold as the corpse that turns up in Dee's hotel room, Carlotta's pas is about to catch up to her...with a vengeance.

Snapshot

by Linda Barnes

Published 1 May 1993

Hardware

by Linda Barnes

Published 1 February 1995

Part Time Boston cabbie and PI Carlotta Carlyle has been hired by a rival cab company to investigate a series of attacks targeting Boston area cab drivers. It seems somebody is after their medallions. Then Carlotta discovers hidden microphones in the garage at the taxi company she works for. But when she brings it to the attention of Sam Gianelli, the company's co-owner and Carlotta's off-again, on-again lover, he doesn't want the microphones disturbed. But he won't say why. Just when Carlotta thinks things can't get any more mysterious, she is almost killed in drive-by shooting when she is picking up her new personal computer, which she bought from Sam's friend. Was it a targeted hit, or a random drive-by? And why has Sam's friend suddenly disappeared? When Carlotta is asked to look deeper into the robberies that are now causing drivers to quit in record numbers, the danger escalates as she stumbles upon a secret that could change her life forever - that is, if she can stay alive.

Cold Case

by Linda Barnes

Published 10 March 1997

Twenty-four years ago, teen prodigy Thea Janis vanished from her upper crust Boston prep school. At first, called a runaway, she's later named among the victims of a serial killer, a man doing life in Walpole Prison. Then, a new manuscript appears in her family's mailbox. The words cry out from the printed pages, Thea's voice unmistakable even a quarter century since the girl's mysterious disappearance. A new client bearing a dead man's name turns up in the office of P.I. Carlotta Carlyle, looking for her help in finding whoever is sending the book - even if it turns out to be Thea herself. The investigation leads Carlotta to a prominent Boston family, with deep connections and even deeper pockets, and which badly wants the tragic past to stay buried. But, after a hit man tries to write his own ending to the saga, the cold case suddenly goes white hot - and Carlotta may be the one who ends up getting burned.

The Big Dig

by Linda Barnes

Published 1 March 2002

Carlotta Carlyle, the six-foot-tall redhead private investigator, thought that working undercover searching out fraud on Boston's Big Dig would be a challenging assignment. After all, the Big Dig, the creation of a central artery highway through downtown Boston, is a USD 14 billion project, the largest urban construction undertaking in modern history. But playing a mild-mannered secretary working out of a construction trailer is not quite the thrill ride she had in mind, so Carlotta starts moonlighting, taking on a missing person case. The mysterious death of a construction worker stirs up a storm of events and soon enough Carlotta is in over her head, grasping at the edges of a vast conspiracy that threatens to make this investigation her last.

Deep Pockets

by Linda Barnes

Published 19 March 2004

Harvard professor Wilson Chaney's position in life is hanging by a thread; his marriage, his reputation, not to mention his tenure at Harvard are in the hands of a blackmaller, someone willing to sell his secrets at very high prices. His enviable life could disappear into thin air should his indiscretions with a young, white student become public knowledge. So he hires Carlotta Carlyle to track down the blackmailer and put a stop to the scheme. Can she do it? Of course, but should she? The professor, while not a criminal, doesn't inspire much loyalty, and when a suspicious death becomes part of the backstory her sixth sense warns her the case might be dangerous.

Heart of the World

by Linda Barnes

Published 2 May 2006

Carlotta is awakened by a late-night phone call telling her that Paolina is missing. Fourteen year old Paolina was paired up with Carlotta by a mentoring programme in Boston years ago, and she knows that Carlotta thinks of her more like a daughter. In fact, as Carlotta combs the streets of Boston, then Miami, and then Bogota looking for Paolina, feeling more and more desperate, she finds herself thinking of another child she lost: a baby she bore at fifteen and gave up for adoption.

Lie Down with the Devil

by Linda Barnes

Published 5 August 2008

Boston PI Carlotta Carlyle wants to know what her on-again, off-again boyfriend Sam Gianelli did to earn himself the secret indictment for murder that's keeping him out of the country. A man with plenty of secrets, Sam won't tell her anything, much less let her help - and she isn't having any more luck getting info from her old friends at the Boston PD. Sam's exile could have something to do with his mob connections, but it can't be that simple. Nothing involving Sam ever is. Finding no easy answers, Carlotta goes back to basics and takes a job working for a jittery bride-to-be who wants to make sure her fiance is being faithful. The case is simple enough - at first. But Carlotta catches the kind of break she wished he hadn't when her client ends up getting killed. Now, as she's hunting down a murderer, she can't help but wonder whether love itself isn't the ultimate dead end...

Flashpoint

by Linda Barnes

Published 8 September 1999

When six-foot redhead ex-cop and Boston-based private investigator Carlotta Carlyle agrees to help an elderly recluse burglar-proof her apartment, the last thing she expected was that the woman would turn up dead. Now Carlotta must find out why the eccentric yet seemingly harmless Valentine Phipps isolated herself - and needed protection.Who would want to hurt Valentine? What was she hiding behind closed doors? Is there a connection between her murder and an age-old mystery that the city's top brass - and its real-estate moguls - want to keep buried? But the most troubling question of all involves the victim's home health aide, Gwen: Why did she introduce Valentine to Carlotta in the first place? The race to catch one of Boston's most ruthless and ambiguous criminals has just begun.

The Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries Volume Two

by Linda Barnes

Published 28 August 2018

The Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries Volume One

by Linda Barnes

Published 3 July 2018

Lucky Penny

by Linda Barnes

Published 18 October 2016

Miss Gibson

by Linda Barnes

Published 18 October 2016

Stealing First

by Linda Barnes

Published 18 October 2016