Linda Barnes

Available for the first time in one volume: three delectably puzzling mystery stories—including the Anthony Award–winning story “Lucky Penny”—starring the inimitable taxi-driving Boston private investigator Carlotta Carlyle
Six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop and Boston-based private eye Carlotta Carlyle is “the genuine article: a straightforward, funny, thoroughly American mystery heroine” (New...

Faced with nothing but dead ends in her boyfriend Sam Gianelli's secret indictment for murder, Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle goes back to basics and takes a case for a nervous bride-to-be who wants to make sure her fiancé is being faithful. When her client turns up dead, Carlotta catches the kind of break she wished she hadn't--From publisher description.

Let go from the Beantown police force for insubordination, six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop, part-time taxi driver, and neophyte private eye Carlotta Carlyle is ready for business. Her first client is the genteel and elderly Margaret Devens, whose brother, Eugene, one of the last in a handful of Boston's aging Irish cabbies, has suddenly vanished. The case should be a cinch. Carlotta knows the territory. She even knew Eugene. But when Margaret is...

Hired to find a missing novelist, Boston private investigator Carlotta Carlyle gets tangled up in a cutthroat political campaign Thea Janis was a literary Mozart. She published her first novel at age fourteen, shocking the upper crust of Boston with her frank depiction of blue-blooded indiscretions, and she seemed to have a magnificent career ahead of her. But before Thea could publish her follow-up novel, she mysteriously disappeared and was eventually...

Private investigator Carlotta Carlyle's moonlighting job as a taxi driver turns into the most dangerous, high-octane case of her career When Carlotta can't sleep-or when money gets tight-she drives a cab. It's always been a dangerous way to make a living, but lately it's become truly terrifying. In the last two months, nine cabbies have been savagely beaten and robbed, and every time Carlotta gets behind the wheel, she knows that she could be next....

Six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop and Boston-based private eye Carlotta Carlyle knows all about urban survival. That's why she's happy to do her neighbor, Valentine, a favor like this one. The elderly recluse needs help burglar-proofing her rent-controlled apartment. But it seems Valentine's fears are more immediate and threatening than she's letting on. Because just twenty-four hours later, the old woman turns up dead in her ransacked home. Finding...

Carlotta Carlyle's investigation into blackmail leads to murder.

Former PI and independently wealthy actor Michael Spraggue attends a get-together of great New Orleans chefs where the secret ingredient is murder Sophisticated Boston Brahmin Michael Spraggue will never forget the flaky strawberry tarts Dora Levoyer made for him when he was a little boy. A French immigrant who has worked for Michael's eccentric aunt Mary for decades, Dora has an old-world sensibility, an elegant palate, and a past that cannot be...

For the sake of an illegal immigrant, Boston private investigator and part-time taxi driver Carlotta Carlyle gets involved in a serial murder case Carlotta Carlyle has just returned home when a dead woman walks through her door. Manuela Estefan is breathing, walking, and talking-but according to the newspaper in her hand, she was just found savagely murdered in a marshy park not far from Fenway. The deceased woman was carrying Manuela's ID card, and...

From the author of the Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries: The complete set of the popular series starring an ex-PI turned actor. Anthony Award–winning author Linda Barnes is perhaps best known for her six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop and Boston-based private eye Carlotta Carlyle. But fellow Bostonian Michael Spraggue, a former private investigator who caught the acting bug, just can't seem to leave his past career as a sleuth behind him. Blood Will Have...