Coyote [Paperback]

Linda Barnes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1991

A blazing redhead, a loner with a cabbie's  license and a mean volleyball spike, Carlotta Carlyle  has a talent for trouble. Tonight her mysterious  client speaks broken English and clutches a  newspaper detailing the discovery of a mutilated body in  the Boston Fens. The corpse has an immigrant's  green card and that card, the client claims, belong  to her. She wants it back. But who is she? Where  has she gone? And why do all the leads connect  her to Paolina, Carlotta's charming urban  "little sister"? Paolina won't talk. And  suddenly Carlotta is plunged deep inside the desperate  world of illegal aliens, the cold-hearted  immigration agents who hunt them down, and the deadly  "coyotes" who lead even innocent young girls  to the slaughter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although the title may suggest a Western setting, Coyote brings back to familiar Boston territory six-foot-tall, flame-haired sleuth Carlotta Carlyle. This time the ex-cop and sometime cab-driver prowls overcrowded apartments where illegal aliens rest--and sometimes find their final resting places--after their ill-paid labors. Carlotta's latest case is neatly tied in with her sensitively depicted relationship with Paolina, a child she has befriended through the Big Sister program who has led a troubled alien, Manuela Estafan, to Carlotta. But when Manuela disappears and her I.D. is found on the mutilated body of a murder victim, Carlotta's investigations--running parallel to work done by her cop-friend Mooney--reveal the work of a "coyote"--one who exploits illegal aliens. The case also teaches Carlotta a surprising lesson: much like male private eyes of yore, Carlotta looks at the opposite sex in sexually stereotyped terms. When her libido overcomes her better judgment she makes an error that could prove fatal. Carlotta is at her best when she focuses on the personal plight of the individuals who make up the nameless legion of potential deportees. While discovering the truth about them, she convincingly provides wisdom and comfort to the child she adores. Mystery Guild main selection.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Boston private investigator/part-time cabbie Carlotta Carlyle's search for a frightened woman's green card involves her in an underground world of illegal immigration, labor exploitation, and gruesome mutilation murder. Working in tandem with buddy Lieutenant Mooney, upstairs tenant/free spirit Roz, and hunky-but-deceptive Immigration and Naturalization Service agent Clinton, the animated and energetic Carlyle discovers important information just about the time her beloved "little sister" Paolina disappears. Attractive, athletic, and human as always, Carlotta acts with unequivocal panache. A winning repeat performance for the heroine of The Snake Tattoo ( LJ 2/1/89) and A Trouble of Fools ( LJ 11/1/87). Mystery Guild main selection.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Dell (September 1, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0440210895
• ISBN-13: 978-0440210894
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,316,652 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in Detroit; I always say that's where I learned about crime, but I mean no disrespect to a great city. It's also where I learned to love Motown music and do the Stroll. Came to Boston to go to college, and like so many, stayed, awed by the Atlantic Ocean and accessible public transportation. I still love walking Boston's cobbled streets, riding the T, breathing the history.
I started writing while teaching high school theater. Required by my principal to enter a one-act play festival sponsored by the Boston Globe, I cast the play before I actually found it. I had such great students that year, and 12 of them certainly deserved to be in the festival cast. When I couldn't find a one-act with 12 roles (duh), I had to write one myself. The festival was a competition, and darned if we didn't keep on winning, right up to the state finals, where a man came up to me and asked whether he might publish that play. I said yes, wrote more plays, and then segued into crime fiction.
My first Carlotta Carlyle short story was nominated for just about every mystery award going, and the first Carlyle novel, A TROUBLE OF FOOLS, was nominated for an Edgar and a Shamus, and won the American Mystery Award. I've got a new book, the eleventh in the Carlyle series, coming out in May. It's called HEART OF THE WORLD. Check my website for upcoming tour details. For the rest, I'm married, mother of a teenage son, and currently proud to be president of Private Eye Writers of America.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ripe for Re-release!, August 23, 2002

By 

Wendy Kaplan (Houston) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coyote (Hardcover)

To the powers that be: Please re-release this wonderful book, one of the best by Linda Barnes, and certainly worthy of attention from readers new and old.

In this Carlotta Carlyle classic, a serial killer is stalking Hispanic women, all illegal aliens, in Carlotta's native Boston. The murders are grisly and vicious, and fear of being sent back to their equally grisly and vicious native lands are keeping the victims' friends from talking. Carlotta finds herself in the middle of the trouble after an anonymous woman asks for help--and it's soon Carlotta herself who needs the help.

As readers of these mysteries know, Carlotta has a beloved "little sister," a Hispanic child named Paolina, whom the detective loves dearly. But with the dark mystery threatening the Hispanic community, Paolina changes overnight from a sunny, bright and loving child to one who is surly and uncommunicative. Is Paolina's mother Marta in danger from the serial killer? Is Paolina herself being threatened? What is the secret they will not reveal?

Even though this reader guessed the killer about halfway through the book, it in no way detracted from the great story, and chilling secrets revealed in the end.

A great read, and worth digging for.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Carlotta, The Big Sister P.I., April 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Coyote (Paperback)

Illegal aliens, immigration officers, fear and distrust combine for a great book. The author has intertwined the abuse and turmoil illegal aliens face and written an interesting and captivating tale. The main character, Carlotta, standing six-one with red hair, demonstrates her strength while maintaining her allegiance to others. As the dead bodies emerge, Carlotta is determined to identify the victims and find the killer. The police can't get fingerprints and the people who might know something won't talk. Mix in the tender relationship Carlotta has with her 'little sister' Paolina, the complicated relationship with her ex boss, and the drive she maintains to solve the crime, and you have a book you don't want to put down. The variety of characters created by the author provide a humorous, yet realistic, aspect to the book. Very entertaining and enjoyable to read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, considering..., May 24, 2004

By 

Jack Purcell (Placitas, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coyote (Paperback)

After reading the reviews and editorial blurbs about this one I didn't expect to like it. Everything seemed too goooood, what with a female PI big sister, illegal aliens, poverty, ya dee yaa dee yaa. I'm honestly not certain why I tried it on.

I'm glad I did. Boston's changed a lot from the city I lived in during the early 1960s, but not so much it isn't recognizable and enjoyable. The characters don't beat the reader over the head with the social ills we all know about. We aren't preached to with in-your-face feminism, mostly, and there's a degree of finesse when it happens at all. In those instances it passes for a more-or-less legitimate young female with attitude, arguing about who gets to drive and why, who pays the check, etc etc etc, realism we don't have to like in the character to believe in a way to suggest it's not so much a social bludgeoning as actual characterization.

I was never tempted to trash this book before I finished it. I don't believe you'll be, either.