Customer Reviews

Deep Pockets

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Carlotta Carlyle series is one of the best of the strong, independent, female private investigator / cop genre. In the tenth installment, Deep Pockets, Carlotta's case involving a Harvard professor is a referral from her new boyfriend, FBI Agent Leon Wells. Carlotta has little empathy for her new client, not only because of his elitist affiliation with the "world's greatest university," but because the case involves blackmail over the client's love affair with an undergraduate student. Carlotta's uncomfortable relationship with the Harvard professor parallels her equally uncomfortable relationship with Leon. Both men represent "the establishment" to Carlotta, questioning her work methods and her independent desire to be in control.

Carlotta's case quickly expands from blackmail to murder, and introduces complications from her contacts at the Boston Police Department, a cleaning contractor, the professor's eccentric wife, and Harvard University administration. Lies of omission and double crosses by the suspects lead Carlotta in a variety of directions, including some half-truths and breaking and entering of her own. Carlotta's working activities occur against a backdrop of her relationships with Roz, her roommate, and Carlotta's unofficial little sister, Paolo, who is struggling with her awakening sexuality and puberty. As always, Sam Gianelli, Carlotta's ex-boyfriend and mob member, is also haunting her heart and her daydreams.

Deep Pockets is a fast paced, engaging read, and a great addition to this series. The characters and plot are well written and consistent, although the Harvard professor and Leon are a little flat. Carlotta is an appealing hero, largely because of her portrayal as a person with doubts and imperfections and not a superwoman. This is a very good read, relatively fast, and recommended for fans of private investigators and sleuths.

A Harvard professor hires Boston private investigator Carlotta Carlyle to track down a blackmailer. The married professor, Wilson Chaney, has had an affair with a young student. His reputation and everything he he holds dear in his life is on the line. The student that Wilson had the affair with had been burned to death a month earlier. It was declared a suicide, but was it? Letters to Wilson started shortly after demanding money. After making a payment, the demands still do not stop so Wilson wants Carlotta to find the blackmailer and reclaim the love letters he had written to the student. The more Carlotta digs into the case the more complicated it becomes including another suspicious death.

This is the tenth in the Carlotta Carlyle series. Linda Barnes does a good job of telling enough of Carlotta backstory to make this book totally stand on its own. I enjoyed the tall, red-haired, independent, strong, stubborn, and oddly vulnerable character of Carlotta. The story really grabbed me from the first page. It seemed to drag a bit in the middle, but really had a suspenseful ending with an unexpected twist. There was a nice balance between Carlotta personal story and the case she was working on. The plot was not overly complicated and easy to follow. Linda Barnes fans won't be disappointed.

Boston area private investigator Carlotta Carlyle noticed the mark trailing her throughout Harvard Square. She pulls a magician's trick and accosts her tracker. He insists he was not stalking her, but instead working up the courage to consult with her in a professional capacity.

He explains that "his friend" is being blackmailed and paying failed to end the nightmare. Tenured Harvard Professor Wilson Chaney admits he had an affair with a freshman student Denali Brinkman. Realizing that revelation of his taboo indiscretion would end his career Wilson hires Carlotta to uncover the identity of his blackmailer so he can persuade the person to stop. Though Carlotta literally (only slightly that is) and figuratively (totally) looks down at her client especially over the age of his lover, she accepts the case.

Carlotta digs deep into the background of her client and his former teen lover. She searches for threads at the University and in Wilson's personal life, finding a vehicular death link. Unable to resist, Carlotta goes down the side path that this death takes her not realizing how dangerous her detour will soon prove as there is much more to this case than simply a blackmailed cheating husband

In her tenth appearance, Carlotta remains an invigorating private investigator. Her latest case DEEP POCKETS is a fabulous detective story that starts rather differently, but quite exhilaratingly before turning into a suspense thriller. Carlotta deals with ethics issues throughout the tale beginning with her odious client and continuing when she chose a lane that might not be in the best interest of the professor. This six foot one former police officer still kicks butt as one of Boston's finest.

Harriet Klausner

We'll admit that the tall volleyball enthusiast, blues lover, and quirky lady PI (and part-time cabbie) Carlotta Carlyle is one of our favorite characters, having read all previous nine entries in this series. We enjoyed "Pockets" more than Barnes' just prior effort, "The Big Dig", as in that novel our familiar supporting cast were mysteriously all absent. Even Carlotta herself seemed a bit "off her game" though the story itself and her solving of the case concluded a decent enough plot. In this latest novel, our friends "little sister" Paolina, ex-lover Sam Gianelli, new boyfriend Leon, Cab company owner extraordinaire Gloria, and the wild housemate/helper Roz, all combine to add humor and interest to a clever story line that builds suspense as new clues come to light. Plenty of others have summarized the plot, but the gist of it is that a Harvard professor is being blackmailed for sleeping with a student (mostly at her initiative); he hires our Carlotta to see if she can get it stopped. The student commits a fatal arson/suicide; and then later the seeming blackmailer gets run over by the professor's stolen car in a hit and run. Sensing too many coincidences and a probable frame, Carlotta discovers a very interesting twist surfacing from the investigation into the mysterious student's background. Defining the real crimes and finding the real criminals concludes the entertaining tale, while some violence to Carlyle near the end adds to the suspenseful outcome.

Carlotta Carlyle is very much the competent leading lady in the ilk of Sue Grafton and V.I. Warshawski. To us, her endearing qualities and down to earth personality, along with a crew of helpers we have come to know and enjoy, contribute to a feeling that her stories are somewhat like letters home from camp -- while we don't always care exactly what happens, we enjoy hearing from our Linda Barnes friends and family!

Carlotta Carlyle is another old friend. I first listened to her on tape; this is probably only the first or second time I've read this author in print. The fact that it is just as enjoyable means that it isn't merely the talents of the voice actor.

In a way it is strange. Carlotta isn't someone I'd normally find sympathetic. Her politics are far to the left of mine, she loves driving, sports and a few other things that leave me cold. But there are some points of similarity, and more importantly, Barnes does such a masterful job of describing Carlotta, and communicating her inability to let a puzzle rest. There's a line in the middle of the book where she describes Carlotta as unable to sleep because she can't let go of the mystery, "like a sore spot in your mouth where your tongue can't reach" - she uses three or four other similes, just to show how frustrated Carlotta is, but that one pegged it for me and bridged the gap between myself and Carlotta. Carlotta is also a non-traditional parent figure, and her description of seeing her little sister, and simultaneously seeing the five year old, the ten year old and the fifteen year old were also spot on and insightful. In short, Barnes is a writer who studies people and tries to portray both Carlotta and the characters in her environment with a sympathetic but critical eye. I'd read her just for that.

Took me till noon today to spot a flaw in the plotting of this book - and I'm not sure that if I went back I wouldn't discover that I'd just missed a solution. Writing a mystery is damm tough. I've tried it once or twice. Trying to plant convincing red herrings, making sure that the plot evolves organically and inevitably from the motivations and resources of the characters, and then making sure that the protagonist doesn't solve it too fast or too slow. Those are some pretty formidable challenges. On top of that is the craft of writing; you have to draw the reader forward through the story. Barnes succeeds in all but one of these (Carlotta ignores a clue that should have rung bells in her head immediately). I confess that the solution I constructed was a bit more complex than what was originally discovered, but the simpler solution allowed for the exposition of some rather nice features of minor characters.

I haven't read all the Carlyle books, but there have been quite a few. And Carlotta still seems fresh. She grows and changes with each book, but the growth is appropriate. She doesn't suddenly solve her issues, but she does circle around them, examining them from new perspectives each time. Much the way real people do, unable to make progress till they've completely examined the problem.

Read them all.

Picking up an unspecified short time after events in "The Big Dig" Private Investigator Carlotta Carlyle has a sense that someone is watching her as she runs errands. She soon spots him and he isn't very good at tailing her. She eventually confronts the man who isn't very good at hiring a private investigator either.

What the middle aged black man is good at is being a professor at nearby Harvard University. Dr. Wilson Chaney has a major problem. He recently had an affair with a student in one of his classes who subsequently died after the affair ended. He can't deny the affair should word leak out as someone has proof in the form of love letters he wrote the dead woman. Someone is using those letters to blackmail the professor, one letter at a time. He has already paid once, thinking that would be the end of it. Of course, it wasn't and now the blackmailer is back. The blackmailer is offering to sell him another letter at a hefty price increase.

For the professor, the problem isn't that he is black and the student was white. The issue is that this was the latest in a whole series of affairs he has conducted over the years, often with students. The political climate at Colleges and Universities has changed and with families suing schools, such behavior is no longer expected, accepted, and tolerated. It could cost him his prestigious, though non-tenured, position at Harvard as well as what is left of his shaky marriage. He can't afford to lose either for a variety of reasons. There are other considerations as well, which he refuses to specify, and Dr. Chaney wants help.

Despite the fact that Carlyle finds the man and his behavior to her and others despicable, she agrees to accept the case and begins looking for the blackmailer. Her mission is not to involve law enforcement but to instead, find a way to blackmail the blackmailer so that he or she stops. Carlyle has a couple of ideas how to go about this and as she works, it becomes increasingly clear that neither idea has any chance of success. In fact, as she investigates, the case becomes increasingly complex and goes in ways that she never saw coming and she has no idea who is doing what. But the blackmailer knows exactly what Carlyle is doing and what she wants and has no intention of putting up with Carlyle wandering around getting in the way and ruining a perfectly good payday.

While an interesting premise, something went wrong in the execution. Not only are most of the characters outside of Carlyle's circle of friends despicable in many ways, the read itself is flat and boring. While Carlyle tells the reader repeatedly how upset she is, how much she misses Sam (her on again off again love interest who now happens to be a major player in the Mob and not around), or how confused she is about her new relationship with FBI Agent Leonard Wells (first introduced in "The Big Dig") we never feel it. Instead, while constantly told, the connection with the reader is never made and as such, for this reader at least, never drawn into the world of the book. Left out and looking in, this slow book moves ponderously forward as Carlyle ruminates endlessly on what to do.

It doesn't matter if it is her personal life or her professional one, she constantly reminds one and all that they have to take her as is, and then doesn't have a clue what to do next. Unfortunately that has been the underlying theme of the last couple novels and this is no exception. While often thinking about her love life and how messed up it is she drifts from one weak lead to another working the case. In almost every meeting, the character she deals with is from the lower end of the gene pool and should be encouraged to crawl back under the rock he or she came from.

The ending does finally come after 310 pages but it takes a long time to get there. For those that are already familiar with the series, this one is one to skip. Nothing new happens and no advancement at all occurs in terms of character development. For those new to the series, this one could easily be read as a stand alone as except for a few vague references to the past, it deals with the present and does not reveal events from previous books. However, while it is a stand alone in that sense, it is not a good introduction to the author or her normally enjoyable work.

Blackmail is nasty, especially when the truth is hidden. Wilson Chaney's life isn't an open book and his career as a Harvard professor may end when the door is opened. By referral from Carlotta Carlyle's new boyfriend Chaney hires her for find the blackmailer and put a stop to his actions in DEEP POCKETS by Linda Barnes.

This installment in the Carlotta Carlyle series does not have the sustained tension of THE BIG DIG, but it is still a good read.

Nash Black, author of QUALIFYING LAPS.

I really like Carlotta and her accompanying cast. The plot works well enough; it gives the characters room to be themselves. But it's hard to take anything she has to say about Harvard very seriously after she puts the victim on an athletic scholarship. (A central tenet of the Ivy League is outlawing athletic scholarships, been that way since its founding. And no, I did not go to an Ivy.)

I am baffled as to why Linda Barnes is not at the top of every mystery lover's list. Her character, Carlotta Carlyle, is like a blend of Kinsey Millhone and Stephanie Plum -- she's got chutzpah when it's needed, but there are some soft edges to her, too. Barnes' stories are impeccably plotted with just enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the end. And her writing is smooth and fresh.

"Deep Pockets," the tenth in the series, is as complete a mystery package as anyone could hope for. All the quirky characters from previous novels (Leroy, Paolina, Sam, Roz, and more) make their appearances, and we get to see Carlotta continue to wrestle with her never-ending attraction to Sam. The relationship between Carlotta and her adopted little sister, Paolina, also matures. I appreciate how Barnes keeps these relationships growing and changing instead of letting them stagnate as mere backdrops to the storyline.

If you like Grafton, Paretsky, Muller, or Dunlap, try Barnes. You'll love her.

CArlotta has a mouth on her. A big mouth, and an attitude to match. Even though I am not crazy about Barnes tendency towards foul language, I guess it comes with the territory. There are only a couple of writers I will bother with who use this type of language in a mystery, and at least with Barnes, she doesn't have it every other sentence, or use the language to cover up for a bad plot or characterization.

Barnes books have interesting and engaging characters in it to say the least. This time Carlotta gets hired by a Harvard professor who did what they often do (professors...), get involved with one of their students. And he didn't even bother to make it a grad student. Undergrads are strictly prohibited even within the universities own moral systems...really, really frowned upon.

The girl he gets involved with dies in a questionable fire. A lot of the information Carlotta finds out about the girl makes her more intriguing then a lot of victims and you almost wish Barnes had spent more time developing this particular character. But most of the time and plot is spent with the professor, his batty wife, and those working with him in bioengineering (a new area of very questionable ethics for mystery writers to delve into). Then we find out the girl is not exactly who we were lead to believe she was...but that's telling.

Carlotta meets up with her old boyfriend, who is, then isn't in the mafia. Can't seem to make up his mind. That's okay...she can't make up her mind about him either. The story is pretty good. Stirs in the pot of bioethics and educational ethics that I am deeply involved in so it got my attention right away.

Karen Sadler