Customer Reviews

Cold Case

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Intrepid private investigator Carlotta Carlyle is approached by a man who claims that he has received a manuscript written by a girl who disappeared as a young teenager some 24 years ago. The girl, Thea Janis, wrote a brilliant and successful book at a very early age and then disappeared. When Carlotta begins to investigate, she finds that Thea was reported dead many years ago. She begins to investigate Thea's wealthy and politically-active family and begins to uncover some skeletons in the closet. She works with her old police buddy, Mooney, and after several red herrings, begins to unravel a tangled web of lies and deceit that run very deep in Thea's family. Some of the familiar elements of this series are missing in this book. Carlotta plays nary a game of volleyball and her little sister Paolina is absent until the very end of the book. A parting of the ways occurs between Carlotta and her current lover with suddenness and fury over a seemingly minor matter. Also, the presence of Paolina's father lurks furtively in the shadows, but never really makes an impact on the story. Other than this, readers should enjoy this entry in the series.

Having worked with numerous investigators over the past 16 years, I am sure I would have lost my license to practice law if Carlotta was working on my cases. I don't expect mysteries to be "true", but at least they should not border on science fiction. I was tempted to start a count of how many criminal laws the ex cop turned investigator broke but gave up. Don't even mention ethics.

I know that lawyers, especially criminal defense lawyers, are supposed to be the slime of the earth. Maybe so, but Carlotta was way slimier than any attorney I have ever known.

This is another great Linda Barnes mystery. I enjoy her books - plots are well-done, characters are developed, plus the stories take place in Boston, where I lived for many years. Fun reading!

#8 Carlotta Carlyle mystery set in Boston and environs. Carlotta is approached by an older man who gives her the first chapter of a manuscript to read--he believes that Thea Janis is alive. She had written a brilliant, seductive novel that read well beyond her fifteen years--and then disappeared. She wrote using a particular paper and ink in a certain style and this manuscript certainly reads a lot like Nightmare's Dawn. But a little digging makes Carlotta wonder what her client is playing at--when it's revealed that Thea--whose real name was Dorothy Cameron, one of the politically rich and powerful Cameron family--was actually dead, the killer having confessed and her body being buried.

Suddenly, the client--who also is not whom he claims to be--wants the manuscript back and to un-hire Carlotta, but by then the old, cold case has got her intrigued and she's not likely to give up so quickly. Leaving most of the laws and ethics of a good private investigator behind, she plunges ahead anyway--otherwise, there would probably be no story here. LOL Meanwhile, the drug lord natural father of Carlotta's "little sister" Paolina has disappeared and she engages her dispatcher pal Gloria to harass his lawyer until she knows where he is--and she's being followed by someone she suspects is either one of Carlos' thugs or else a DEA agent. Or is it someone connected with the Cameron family who don't want her digging too deeply into Thea's death?

Every time I read one of these books, I'm amazed how the series flew under my radar for so many years, and that the author isn't more well-known. Great main character, interesting secondary characters, very atmospheric with plenty of action and realistic dialogue. Another winner!

"Cold Case" by Linda Barnes is enjoyable from start to finish.The poems of a murdered writer surfaces 24 years after her death.Recent poems. Private I,Carlotta doesn't know if they're frauds or genuine.She only knows that the poems reveal more than writer's family wants her and the public to know.Things such as the truth behind a seemingly solved case,and secret alliances between politicians and members of the Boston PD. The role of the murdered,child writer makes this novel border on the paranormal.It gets very eerie without getting "out there."I give it a 10 for suspense. -Joe

I surprised that this mystery did not make People Magazine's "Page Turner of the Week." I couldn't put it down. Linda Barnes reoccuring characters are well constructed. Here books don't take reading and re-reading the first few chapters several times to jump right into the reading journey. If this book were food, it might not be filet but it certainly is warm oatmeal on a cold, rainy day.

Although I enjoyed the book, I don't feel it was one of her better efforts. I didn't find the story line that appealing or exciting but I like reading stories about the Boston area and the like Carlotta a lot !

I was very disapointed with this book. It came highly recommended. I loved Ms. Barnes' other books. This one was a bore!

This book, unlike the entire rest of the Carlotta Carlyle series (and I have read them all), bored me to tears. If I did not have a "thing" about reading every single entry in any series I like, I would never have finished the book. The good news is, since I read it out of sequence, I know that the slowness of the plot is an anomoly...the only one in the series to be just about impossible to finish. But finish it I did.

The plot concerns the sudden appearance of an unpublished manuscript by Thea Janis, a teenaged prodigy who wrote a shocking blockbuster hit, "Nightmare's Dawn," a couple of decades earlier, before apparently killing herself at the tender age of 15.

Carlotta is hired by a Dr. Manley, a "friend of the family" who is now convinced that Thea is alive, and who wants Carlotta to--very discreetly--find her. Manley is absolutely firm in his belief that Thea is still alive, and although Carlotta strongly doubts it, her subsequent sleuthing brings her closer and closer to one of the most prominent Boston families, one of whom is running a close race for governor.

Sounds tailor-made for a great read, right? Wrong. There are so many red herrings, side stories, wrong turns, threads that go nowhere and endless musings, I had to stop reading for days at a time. Several times, I thought to myself, "Now THIS is a perfect ending for the book." But nooo.....it went on and on and on and on into many such endings, until it finally limped to a disappointing conclusion.

I forgive Linda Barnes, because I love her writing and I love her series. I'm going to put this down to panic over a printing deadline and forget all about it. My suggestion: If you have read the entire series and you are a purist about reading every last page (like I am), go ahead, but be warned. If you are an occasional Linda Barnes reader, and you like what you have read, skip this one, by all means.

This is the first book I have read by Linda Barnes. It was a good story with some surprising plot twists. It wasn't so suspenseful that it kept me glued to the book, but the author did a great job of portraying your average dysfunctional wealthy family. The female P.I. (ex-cop) protagonist, Carlotta Carlyle, doesn't come in with guns ablazing, but she gets the job done (sometimes quite humorously).