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Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, considering...
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Carlotta, The Big Sister P.I.
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Ripe for Re-release!
Review: 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.
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