Cold Case (Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries (Hardcover))

Rating:
Summary: A ghost -like creeper without the ghosts
Review: "Cold Case" by Linda Barnes is enjoyable from start to finish.The poems of a murdered writer surfaces 24 years after her death.Recent poems. Private I,Carlotta doesn't know if they're frauds or genuine.She only knows that the poems reveal more than writer's family wants her and the public to know.Things such as the truth behind a seemingly solved case,and secret alliances between politicians and members of the Boston PD. The role of the murdered,child writer makes this novel border on the paranormal.It gets very eerie without getting "out there."I give it a 10 for suspense. -Joe

Rating:
Summary: I like Linda Barnes and her PI Carlotta
Review: Above and beyond most of Sue Graftons. More like Sara Paretsky than anybody else.

I've read almost all Linda Barnes Carlotta books and recommend them if you enjoy female P.I.s.

Rating:
Summary: Verrrrrry Slooooow
Review: This book, unlike the entire rest of the Carlotta Carlyle series (and I have read them all), bored me to tears. If I did not have a "thing" about reading every single entry in any series I like, I would never have finished the book. The good news is, since I read it out of sequence, I know that the slowness of the plot is an anomoly...the only one in the series to be just about impossible to finish. But finish it I did.

The plot concerns the sudden appearance of an unpublished manuscript by Thea Janis, a teenaged prodigy who wrote a shocking blockbuster hit, "Nightmare's Dawn," a couple of decades earlier, before apparently killing herself at the tender age of 15.

Carlotta is hired by a Dr. Manley, a "friend of the family" who is now convinced that Thea is alive, and who wants Carlotta to--very discreetly--find her. Manley is absolutely firm in his belief that Thea is still alive, and although Carlotta strongly doubts it, her subsequent sleuthing brings her closer and closer to one of the most prominent Boston families, one of whom is running a close race for governor.

Sounds tailor-made for a great read, right? Wrong. There are so many red herrings, side stories, wrong turns, threads that go nowhere and endless musings, I had to stop reading for days at a time. Several times, I thought to myself, "Now THIS is a perfect ending for the book." But nooo.....it went on and on and on and on into many such endings, until it finally limped to a disappointing conclusion.

I forgive Linda Barnes, because I love her writing and I love her series. I'm going to put this down to panic over a printing deadline and forget all about it. My suggestion: If you have read the entire series and you are a purist about reading every last page (like I am), go ahead, but be warned. If you are an occasional Linda Barnes reader, and you like what you have read, skip this one, by all means.