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Cold Case (Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries)
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Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Author: Linda Barnes
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Average Customer Rating:
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Cold Case (Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries) Description
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312932664
ISBN: 0312932669
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Book Pages: 496
Publication Date: 2005-11-29
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Product Release Date: 2005-11-29
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Editorial Review of Cold Case (Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries)
Then a new manuscript appears in her family's mailbox. The words cry out from the printed pages, Thea's voice unmistakable even a quarter century since the girl's mysterious disappearance. A new client bearing a dead man's name turns up in the office of P.I. Carlotta Carlyle, looking for her help in finding whoever is sending the book—even if it turns out to be Thea herself.
The investigation leads Carlotta to a prominent Boston family with deep connections and even deeper pockets, and which badly wants the tragic past to stay buried. But after a hit man tries to write his own ending to the saga, the cold case suddenly goes white hot—and Carlotta may be the one who ends up getting burned.
Customer Reviews of Cold Case (Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries)
Review Summary: Just plain BORING
Review: I'm sorry but I must agree with others here that this was a very slow, confusing BORING book! I've heard about Linda Barnes and was told she's a good writer - not in this book! I think maybe it could have possibly been better by cutting at least 100 pages! (Yes, I put all those extra words in on purpose!) I really do NOT have to know every stupid detail about how she gets from point A to point B! Really! I haven't read (nor will I ever read) any of her previous books so the whole thread with her Little Sister was confusing and ... no necessary. I only gave the book two stars for a great premise. Too bad it was wasted.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Interesting plot
Review: Intrepid private investigator Carlotta Carlyle is approached by a man who claims that he has received a manuscript written by a girl who disappeared as a young teenager some 24 years ago. The girl, Thea Janis, wrote a brilliant and successful book at a very early age and then disappeared. When Carlotta begins to investigate, she finds that Thea was reported dead many years ago. She begins to investigate Thea's wealthy and politically-active family and begins to uncover some skeletons in the closet. She works with her old police buddy, Mooney, and after several red herrings, begins to unravel a tangled web of lies and deceit that run very deep in Thea's family. Some of the familiar elements of this series are missing in this book. Carlotta plays nary a game of volleyball and her little sister Paolina is absent until the very end of the book. A parting of the ways occurs between Carlotta and her current lover with suddenness and fury over a seemingly minor matter. Also, the presence of Paolina's father lurks furtively in the shadows, but never really makes an impact on the story. Other than this, readers should enjoy this entry in the series.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: the long journey is not up tp the destination
Review: The ending was the same as so many other books along the same line that I was sorely disappointed. Especially because there were many opportunities for it to turn into something a little less predictable. A saving grace was CJ Critt's narration. )I listened to BOT). It almost made the characters interesting. This was my first Carlotta Carlyle mystery and probably my last.
Customer Rating:
Review 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.
Customer Rating:
Review Summary: Ugh...bad topic, convoluted plot, bad language...
Review: I really like to read mysteries. And I've read a lot of them over the years. I like them well-written, and I like the plots to make sense, and the mysteries to be plausible. I've read BArnes before and have enjoyed some of her work. But I really did not like this book!
About the only good thing I can say about it, is I had no idea where she was going (in spite of background in neuroscience/psychiatry). As she kept mentioning 'recovered memories' that should have clued me in to the horrible conclusion, but for some reason there was not enough information given in the poetry of the person Carlotta was looking for, or the background of the family.
Yeah, it deals with a topic that makes me very uncomfortable, even though I realize that in reality this type of family situation happens more often then we know. It's just I don't find this stuff even remotely entertaining or interesting....ugh. And the language of Barnes' books are getting more and more rough. I realize she is supposed to be writing about a hard-boiled woman detective, but it is more than I can stand!
Karen Sadler