Rating: 
Summary: I guess anyone can get published
Review: This reads like a junior highschool English project. Have you ever met someone at a social function and they take a long time to tell you some story that has no end and no purpose? No? Read this and you'll understand what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: Barnes back after 4 years off - story is fair but not great
Review: 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.
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