Cold Case (A Carlotta Carlyle mystery) - Hardcover

Barnes, Linda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0340597739 ISBN 13: 9780340597736

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1997

Synopsis

Cold hearts....

Boston at night ebbs and flows with shadows of things deadly: A hit man with a gun...a new client with old money telling lies in P.I. Carlotta Carlyle's office...the searing truth behind the long-ago disappearance of a brilliant young writer.

Cold blood....

Thea Janis vanished twenty-four years ago, but her cold case steals into Carlotta's life like an illicit lover. The new manuscript pages a sad-eyed man lays on Carlotta's desk are mesmerizing, written in Thea's unmistakable voice, and the story he tells draws Carlotta in as surely as the notes of a haunting blues riff just beyond her grasp.

Cold case....

Is Thea alive or dead? Who is sending the new manuscript piecemeal to Thea's family, demanding chapter-by-chapter blackmail? Is the author a victim, a plagiarist...or a killer? In Carlotta's business, blind spots lead to blind sides-and looking over her shoulder can keep her from seeing where she's going...into a past as dark and evil as they come, where old secrets turn lethal and the words of a poet can kill.

About this title

Review:

"Cold Case" is the police term for an old, unsolved case. Linda Barnes's private eye, Carlotta Carlyle, finds that it's up to her to discover the connection between an old disappearance and a new riddle. Almost a quarter of a century earlier, fifteen-year-old Thea Janis disappeared after publishing her precociously brilliant debut novel, "Nightmare's Dawn." Now, pages from a new manuscript are appearing, all written in Thea's unmistakable voice. Thea's family is in an uproar, and the Boston police refuse to reopen the case, insisting that they already have the missing girl's killer.

In this case, the ingenious P.I. (and part-time cab driver) must untangle a web of blackmail, political corruption, family secrets, and murder. Cold Case is written in fine, breezy style and both Carlotta's attractive personality and the story's twists and turns will keep you hooked until the last page.

From the Publisher:

"With a stylish pro like Barnes doing the plotting, this chilling case won't leave you cold."
--People

"An intricate whodunit-and-why...Barnes is an adroit storyteller and she makes her large cast of interesting characters come alive."
--Chicago Tribune

"[A] vivid puzzler and a walloping good read...lay in the supply of midnight oil before you pick up this book."
--Albuquerque Journal

A selection of the Mystery Guild

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0340597739
• ISBN 13: 9780340597736
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1