Customer Reviews

The Big Dig

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you like private eye stuff, particularly set in Boston, be sure to take a look at this one. As the review title suggests, this book reminded me of Parker's early Spenser books, before Spenser became bosom buddies with the cops who used to loathe him, and before, in George V. Higgins' words, Spenser started flying, "off to London like he was trying out for his own TV series."

Linda Barnes is not Robert B. Parker, and this fact does not leave me in sorrow's clutch. Barnes knows contemporary Boston, and writes about it well, though I have to admit, there's not enough Big Dig in this for a Big Dig freak like me. There is, however, a good story, starting simply, but quickly becoming complicated. Barnes' PI Carlotta Carlyle, like Spenser a former cop, like Spenser obstinate and determined to get her own questions answered, is a PI you want to stick with, one you can admire. Carlotta gets out there and ruins her pantyhose if necessary to get the job done (though she does cuss about the cost, and remind herself to dress down the next time she has to wiggle under a fence in the mud).

Bluntly, don't get this one for the Big Dig. Get this one for a first-rate job of storytelling, and a terrific character. If Julianne Moore isn't looking at at least one screen treatment based on Carlotta, there's no justice in Hollywood (OK, I know).

We include ourselves in the Linda Barnes' fan club having read her previous dozen books (4 - Sprague, 8 - Carlyle); so naturally we awaited this latest in the zany P.I. Carlotta Carlyle series with great interest despite the 4-year hiatus since her 1999 "Flashpoint". Set against the multi-billion dollar Boston highway/tunnel project of the same nickname, "Dig" offers just enough of our familiar characters to please, but a somewhat convoluted plot left us a little hollow for much of the story. Carlotta is pretty much her usual self, although there's no cab driving / taxi firm hijinks in this one. Her tenant Roz and her cop friends barely put in an appearance either, as she temporarily works for an ex-cop Eddie Conklin to investigate potential contractor fraud on the Project, while at the same time privately working a missing person case for a wealthy Bostonite lady. That the two efforts intertwine about halfway through is a bit of a stretch, and before it's all over, the FBI is all over the place with issues that connect back all the way to the Waco incident. All in all, the plot generated suspense, but also generated considerable implausibility.

We don't know what Linda was doing her last four years. If it was to make this story zing, in our opinion she might have been better to stick to the familiar terrain of her previous tales and save us much of the torture. We don't want Carlotta turned into V.I. Warshawski - we'll read about her if we want frenetic action from start to finish. Rather, we expected a bit more shrewd street work from Carlyle, a little more humor, a little more running around with her usual friends. So - our fond friend is back, but perhaps not in the best of form. The fan club won't skip it, but to the uninitiated, hardly the best Carlyle episode.

Carlotta Carlyle is one of my very favorite detective characters. Everything about her is intensely real, from her six-foot height to the red hair atop her head. No way she's going to blend in. Life is difficult for her, and she finds herself scrounging to make ends meet. Driving a cab to moonlight is one choice, and doing multiple full-time detective jobs is another. You've got to love this hard-working woman.

As someone who has been living through the Big Dig project in Boston for many years, I was thrilled when Ms. Linda Barnes decided to build a story around it. All we could see during the construction was a big mess that moved daily, disrupting all traffic and making it impossible to know how to go anywhere.

Mention Boston and public works, and the idea of corruption may cross your mind too. After all, Mayor Curley served Bean town from a jail cell during his administration. So when Carlotta is hired to look into Big Dig corruption, I had the story all set in my mind. Carlotta would find the corruption and it would lead right back to the Commonwealth's most well-heeled and established citizens. Wrong!

There's a lot of humor in this story as Carlotta tries to look inconspicuous, yet find out what's going on at the work site. Someone has called in a tip that things are rotten in Denmark. She hasn't found out much by the time that a mysterious death occurs.

At the same time, she takes on an unusual missing person's case. A young dog handler has gone astray, while leaving her dog behind. It doesn't make much sense . . . and Carlotta cannot turn up many leads.

So for most of the story, you see Carlotta having problems rather than being a Superhero Wonder Woman detective. I find that refreshing.

Then, late in the book, the plot develops at a breakneck pace . . . and I couldn't read the remaining pages fast enough to find out what was going on. I was particularly pleased to see that the solution to the mystery themed into another Boston tradition, celebrating Patriot's Day.

Weaving all of the threads together is done masterfully. Even if you usually only like to read about male private detectives solving crimes, you should try this book. I'm sure you'll like it!

After you finish enjoying Big Dig (which is slowly drawing to an end now that the tunnels are open for traffic), I suggest that take a copy with you the next time you are in Boston and imagine the scenes taking place while the main construction was going on. It would make for a great Halloween night!

Using Boston's "Big Dig" as her novel's primary setting, Linda Barnes creates a complex but intriguing mystery in which her heroine, Carlotta Carlyle, a six-foot, red-haired private eye, goes undercover as a secretary on the Big Dig construction site. She is helping the Inspector General's Office investigate possible corruption on the $14 billion project to build a two-mile underground tunnel for the Central Artery. In her off-hours, she has been persuaded by a Boston dowager, Dana Endicott, to work on an unrelated second job, locating Endicott's missing companion, who departed for the weekend and never returned, leaving her beloved dog behind.

The mystery becomes more complex with the suspicious death of a construction worker, the disappearance of the boss's teenage daughter, the FBI's preparations for the April 19th Patriots' Day celebration at Faneuil Hall with several ex-Presidents in attendance, and a possible connection to David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas.

The ninth in the Carlotta Carlyle series of mysteries, The Big Dig picks up Carlotta's personal life where she left off in her previous novel, Flashpoint. She has recovered from her gunshot wounds and her ill-advised romance with the son of a Boston underworld character (featured in that novel) and is back at work, following a devastating fire at her house in Cambridge. The action here is nonstop, and Carlotta, as a free-wheeling detective who follows her intuition and her heart, defies the stereotype of hard-boiled tough, revealing herself instead as a woman who is particularly sensitive to the needs of children, especially the missing teenager, Krissi Horgan.

Though there are a great many characters to track and numerous subplots and red herrings to follow, Barnes is spot-on with her descriptions of the Dig, the ambience of Quincy Market and its tourist bars, the local traffic routes and landmarks, and the more distant small towns in northern Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire which figure in the action. Bostonians will particularly enjoy the local color, but the descriptions are specific enough that those unfamiliar with the area will have no trouble imagining the developing action. Fun to read, with a story that packs a lot of wild action, The Big Dig is a quick-paced mystery that also fills in more of Carlotta Carlyle's personal background and further develops her character. n Mary Whipple

As usual Carlotta Carlyle is on the lookout for new clients. Suddenly there is an embarrassment of riches and she has two clients. The first one is Eddie Conklin, an ex-cop who is now working for a national security firm. He asks Carlotta to investigate some shady doings at the "Big Dig", Boston's over-budget tunnel project which is supposed to alleviate traffic problems in the city. The second client is a wealthy woman named Dana who wants Carlotta to find her missing tenant. Both of these cases are just the tip of the iceburg of bigger, more serious problems which Carlotta uncovers. I agree with some of the other reviewers that this book suffers a bit because Carlotta's usual supporting cast members are either missing (Mooney) or given small parts (Roz). Paolina is becoming more obnoxious with each passing book, which is a shame since her relationship with her Big Sister was once a very appealing part of the series. Also, in this book Carlotta is so busy running around solving mysteries that she doesn't have time to hang out with her volleyball-playing buddies. Fans of Barnes will want to read this book, but it's not the best in the series.

Namely the supporting cast. While I was glad not have to waste much time reading about the annoying Paolina, I did miss Mooney and Gloria, who've really become a big part of this series. And the cameos by Roz and Sam were minor.

Carlotta is a wonderful character, but her supporting cast is wonderful too...bring them back!

Although I prefer a bit of mystery combined with humor a la Evanovich, this was a tightly written story with believable and interesting characters. The plot is good, and is not revealed until the very end, at which point things do fall into place. Barnes has many suspects in the story, but you're never quite sure until the end. Aha's! occur at that point for the reader. She ties the info together without losing the reader's interest or understanding. I like the character Barnes writes about. She's strong, and tough but not inhuman, and intelligent and savvy -- a female character worth reading about.

This much-delayed book by Linda Barnes is not her best, but it's not her worst either.

Carlotta takes on an assignment from a former cop buddy to help investigate alleged fraud on the Big Dig - Boston's multi-billion dollar transportation corridor. While working there, she also takes on a missing person's case from a wealthy woman with secrets of her own.

If you've ever been in Boston or love the city from afar, you'll enjoy this book. Barnes catches the ambiance of Boston to perfection - better than Parker in my mind.

Barnes has aloowed her character to mature over the years and Carlotta was less foolish in this outing than in others. And it was interesting watching her put two and two together to solve both cases.

Barnes, for the most part, didn't keep major pieces of evidence from the reader although she did in one instance and the reader is sure to yell, "No fair!" or some such.

This is a good procedural - although there are better ones out there - it is worth the read if you love Boston as I do.

Carlotta Carlyle goes undercover in this outing, and that's not exactly an easy task for a 6-foot tall redhead! Hired by a former colleague, she's trying to determine the validity of fraud accusations lodged against a construction firm working Boston's infamous Big Dig. Never a 9 to 5-ver, Carlotta's also moonlighting on a missing person case. Rats, dogs, and lots of water play a major role in her investigations, which strangely enough, begin to merge. Carlotta relies nearly as much upon her instincts that her evidence, as none of the principals seems willing to level with her. When new love interest enters the scene, even he is not what he appears to be. More mystery than a thriller, The Big Dig is a light unprepossessing novel that in me, at least, evoked a bit of the spirit of Sam Spade.

My Dad worked for Bechtel for most of his life as an engineer, and one of the projects he worked on was the Big Dig in Boston, as well as the Chunnel over in England. Living in New Hampshire was a new experience for my mother and him, as they were confirmed Californians, but what finally got to him was the incredible amount of dishonesty going on at this dig, not on Bechtel's part, but rather on local politicians as well as ones all the way up the line. I remember him coming home shaking his head in total disgust at the way things were being handled; how much it was costing to get anything done as people held out their hands for more money...contractors, politicians, law enforcement, etc. He finally asked to be removed from the project, spent the last couple of years before retirement working in California quietly.

It was because of this knowledge that I picked up this book on the Dig, to see that my father's word backed up, even in a book of fiction. This had to be one of the biggest pork projects/boondoggles ever passed on the American public, and we can only hope that in the process of all this dishonesty, contractors and builders involved did not shortchange on materials and labor. It needs to be remembered that the entire city of Boston lies above this underground highway, and the possibility for catastrophe on the scale of say New Orleans and its known inadequate levees might occur.

Carlotta gets involved in this project, when a friend who is in business for himself asks her to check out somethings. She ends up not only having to change her appearance and her usual methods of getting to the bottom of possible wrongdoing (dressing up and playing secretary is not the view we usually have of Carlotta). She ends up with two separate cases that end up being intertwined, saves the lives of a child and many other people who were going to be the target of home-grown terrorists (book was written prior to 9/11), and she finds a new 'friend-mate' in law enforement, whom I am sure we will see more of in the future.

I really enjoyed this mystery. Good plot, good and factual history leading up the this project, and good use of Carlotta's native city with its various problems (as well as its good parts). Hope to read more about this project and from Linda Barnes in the near future!

Karen Sadler