Big Dig

One of my favourite female PIs returns, working undercover as a secretary on a building site. As well as loving this series, I was intrigued by its setting within the context of the real life construction project known as The Big Dig in Boston, Massachusettts.Carlotta has been asked to temp as a secretary to check possible fraud on the building site - things take a scarier turn as commonly in crime fiction. She is rather bored though, and can't resist an opportunity to take on a more typical private assignment on the side.Meanwhile, old characters return but mainly to reinforce the point that you can't turn back the clock. "Little Sister" Paolina who Carlotta mentors is turning into a rebellious young woman, and it's doubtful Carlotta can stop her making her own mistakes. And her old flame Sam is moving in a direction which doesn't feel too positive either.I enjoyed this book immensely, although it was quite sad in places.Luci

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.

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!

I can't believe all these readers didn't like this. It was a page turner from the start. All of the parts hung together and it made sense. Wow! So, okay, there were some coincidences that people less willing to suspend their disbelief might not buy, but I bought them. Who cares when you're having this much fun reading?Yes, this Carlotta did seem a bit more staid without her red hair and her taxi, and I did think it read like Sara Paretsky. But who wouldn't want to be compared favorably to Paretsky?I've read all the rest of the Carlottas, by the way, and as with most series, the earliest are the best.

Linda Barnes brings back one of my favorite PI's in THE BIG DIG. Carlotta Carlyle is a remarkable creation. I thought so at the start in her famous "Penny" short story debut. I still think so now. In THE BIG DIG, Barnes entangles Carlotta in that big mess in Boston nicknamed the big dig. It has a great plot and countless memorable characters. A great work by a great writer!