The Big Dig
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
The Boston PI excavates her city's buried secrets in this "shrewd . . . smartly told" thriller by the Anthony Award–winning author (The New York Times).
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 York Post).
Boston's largest urban renewal undertaking in modern history draws Carlotta into an undercover gig at the site. It comes at the request of a disgruntled hardhat who suspects the multibillion-dollar project has set off a groundswell of graft, kickbacks, and fraud. The case hasn't unearthed anything but dirt, so Carlotta is tempted into moonlighting on another: a Beacon Street socialite who's deeply concerned about her vanishing tenant, a dog groomer named Veronica James.
Since there's no possible way Veronica would run off without her beloved Norwegian wolfhound, Carlotta's suspicions are definitely aroused. And when her big-dig informant falls to his death in a highly dubious accident, Carlotta's torn between two disparate investigations: an unlikely kidnapping and a likely murder . . .
Until they begin to converge, "and watching Carlotta tease out their deep, disturbing connections is pure pleasure" (Kirkus Reviews).
The Big Dig is the 9th book in the Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The taut ninth entry in Barnes's Carlotta Carlyle series concerns malfeasance at Boston's Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project, "the biggest urban construction project in the history of the modern world," an engineering marvel and a multibillion-dollar opportunity for graft, kickbacks and political favors. Wounded in the thigh from a gunshot during her last case (1999's Flashpoint) and in the heart from a romance with a rising Mafia don, Carlyle poses as a secretary to find what's rotten at a Big Dig contractor, Horgan Construction. A disgruntled hardhat falls to his death or is he pushed? Someone seems to be stealing dirt from the site. The boss's wife has a horrible case of nerves. Just as Carlyle feels stymied at the Big Dig, she's diverted by a second, more lucrative case Dana Endicott, a Boston Brahmin, begs her to find her missing tenant, Veronica James, whose fate seems tied to an oddly silent kennel. Carlyle is immensely likable, tough without being hard, flawed in ways more original than the average mean streets sleuth. Barnes makes excellent use of Boston's ethnic and economic fiefdoms: the waterfront with its yuppies guzzling designer beer; South Boston, where despair clings to its citizens like the aluminum siding to their decrepit houses. The many plot threads are abruptly but satisfyingly tied up with writing that's vivid, economical and fun. Carlyle thinks: "This business, this art, of deception, of keeping daily secrets, hiding a side of your personality, intrigued me." It intrigues readers, too.
