Linda Barnes

Required to complete a celebrity biography on her own after the suspicious death of her charismatic partner, agoraphobic ghost writer Em Moore struggles through the job's required interviews with alluring film director Garrett Malcolm, who alludes to dark family secrets and trouble with a fellow star. By the author of the Carlotta Carlyle series. 50,000 first printing.

The Perfect Ghost

Six-foot-one redhead Carlotta Carlyle, a former Boston cop and sometime Boston cabbie, sets herself up as an independent private detective, ready to deal with anything from lost pets to grand larcenies, taking on a case for genteel, elderly spinster Margaret Devens to search for her missing brother, Eugene. Reprint.

A Trouble of Fools

Lee Child

Jeffery Deaver

Brett Battles

Former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton is drawn into a terror plot that could result in all-out war between India and Pakistan, and pursues leads around the world to prevent a nuclear catastrophe.

The Copper Bracelet

Boston detective Michael Spraggue investigates a series of grotesque pranks that harass a theatrical production of Dracula

Blood Will Have Blood

Hailed by Sue Grafton as “a true original,” ex-cop turned private eye Carlotta Carlyle risks her neck in Boston’s Combat Zone for two very different clients 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). Carlotta Carlyle is halfway through a pizza when her former boss, Lieutenant Mooney of the Boston Police, shows up at her door needing help even more than Carlotta needs a case. In a Combat Zone bar, Mooney got into a scrap with a stranger over a woman. Now the stranger is comatose, the woman has vanished, and Mooney has been suspended. He wants Carlotta to find the blond hooker with a snake tattoo who witnessed the brawl, and who can exonerate him. Doing surveillance in the Zone, Carlotta gets a second case. A ritzy prep school kid with a bloody lip hires her to find his missing girlfriend. Drawn into two different yet equally dangerous worlds where dead bodies are showing up, Carlotta has only two weeks to save the most honest cop in Boston from going to jail, and to find a girl whose privileged parents don’t seem to care that she’s run away. The Snake Tattoo was named an outstanding book of the year by the London Times. The Snake Tattoo is the 2nd book in the Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

The Snake Tattoo

David Corbett

From International Thriller Writers comes Watchlist: two powerful novellas featuring the same thrill cast of characters in one major suspenseful package. The Chopin Manuscript and then The Copper Bracelet were a collaboration by some of the world's greatest thriller writers, including Lee Child, Joseph Finder, Lisa Scottoline, and Jeffery Deaver, who conceived the characters and set the plot in motion. The other authors each wrote a chapter and Deaver then completed what he started, bringing both novellas to their startling conclusions. In the first novella, The Chopin Manuscript, former war crimes investigator Harold Middleton possesses a previously unknown score by Frederic Chopin. But he is unaware that, locked within its handwritten notes, lies a secret that now threatens the lives of thousands of Americans. As he races from Poland to America to uncover the mystery of the manuscript, Middleton will be accused of murder, pursued by federal agents, and targeted by assassins. But the greatest threat will come from a shadowy figure from his past: the man known only as Faust. Harold Middleton returns in The Copper Bracelet-the explosive sequel to The Chopin Manuscript-as he's drawn into an international terror plot that threatens to send India and Pakistan into full-scale nuclear war. Careening from Nice to London and Moscow to Kashmir to prevent nuclear disaster, Middleton is unaware that his prey has changed and the act of terror is far more diabolical than he knows. Will he discover the identity of the Scorpion in time to halt an event that will pit the United States, China, and Russia against each other at the brink of World War III?

Two Serial Thrillers in One Killer Book

Watchlist

Private investigator Carlotta Carlyle’s moonlighting job as a taxi driver turns into the most dangerous, high-octane case of her career 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). 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. How then can she refuse when a rival taxi company hires her to investigate the assaults? Thinking she will be making the world a safer place for cab drivers, Carlotta doesn’t suspect that this new case will push her even closer to the edge. The company she works for is co-owned by Sam Gianelli, her sometime lover and a mob-connected businessman whose family knows how to get tough. Drawn into a tangled conspiracy of mafia secrets and high-tech espionage, Carlotta will have to drive faster than ever to stay alive. Hardware is the 6th book in the Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Hardware

“The most refreshing, creative female character to hit mystery fiction since Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone” is back—in four more fast-paced crime thrillers (People). 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). Snapshot: A series of strange photos draws Carlotta into a chilling case of medical malpractice. “Snapshot is destined to secure Barnes’ position in the hotshot ranks of detective fiction.” —Arizona Republic Hardware: After a series of assaults on cabbies, Carlotta’s moonlighting job as a taxi driver turns into the most dangerous, high-octane case of her career. “Ms. Barnes makes a fist and puts some muscle in this strong plot about an extortionist scheme to corner the market in the taxi medallions.” —The New York Times Book Review Cold Case: Hired to find a long-missing novelist, Carlotta gets tangled up in a cutthroat political campaign. “With a stylish pro like Barnes doing the plotting, this chilling case won’t leave you cold.” —People Flashpoint: Carlotta tries not to get scorched when an arsonist targets her. “[Flashpoint] further cement[s] [Carlotta’s] place in the pantheon of contemporary P.I.s.” —Chicago Tribune

Snapshot, Hardware, Cold Case, and Flashpoint

The Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries Volume Two

As a former Boston cop, Carlotta Carlyle thought she had seen it all—but that was before she became a private eye . . . 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). A Trouble of Fools: Recently fired from the Beantown police force for insubordination, the part-time taxi driver lands her first case as a private eye. Searching for a missing Irish cabbie leads her into a nefarious scheme that puts her at odds with the FBI and a Mafia-connected former lover, in this award-winning debut. The Snake Tattoo: A London Times outstanding book of the year, Carlotta Carlyle’s former boss, Lieutenant Mooney, gets into a scrap with a stranger in a bar. When the stranger winds up comatose, Mooney is suspended, and he needs Carlotta to find the one woman who can exonerate him: a blond hooker with a snake tattoo. Coyote: An illegal immigrant is mistakenly pronounced dead when her ID card is found on the body of a murdered woman near Fenway Park. Now she needs Carlotta to get her ID—and her life—back. But this wasn’t an isolated crime. A murderer is targeting Boston’s immigrant community . . . and could easily add Carlotta to the kill list. Steel Guitar: Carlotta is shocked to see blues superstar Dee Willis climb into her cab. They were friends in college—until Dee ran off with Carlotta’s husband. Now, Dee’s in town playing a concert and wants Carlotta’s help tracking down a mutual friend. But when a blackmail plot is uncovered and a corpse is found in Dee’s hotel room, Carlotta will have to work fast to keep Dee from becoming another casualty of the blues.

A Trouble of Fools, The Snake Tattoo, Coyote, and Steel Guitar

The Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries Volume One

When private investigator Carlotta Carlyle is wakened by a late-night phone call, she discovers that her "little sister," Paolina, the child with whom she was paired years ago by a local mentoring program, is missing. Carlotta combs the Boston streets looking for Paolina, torn between anger at the thoughtless teenage runaway and anxiety that something has really happened to her. Paolina is more than a sister to Carlotta. She's the daughter she never had, or never owned up to having. She's the one constant in Carlotta's life, more reliable than Sam Gianelli, her mob boss lover, a man whose always unpredictable behavior has become increasingly mysterious. Heart of the World, Linda Barnes's most intense, personal, and suspenseful Carlotta Carlyle novel yet, follows Carlotta's trail from New England to Miami to Bogotá and beyond as she probes the connection between Paolina's disappearance and the corresponding disappearance of the Colombian drug lord father Paolina has never met. A breathless and shocking read, Heart of the World is perhaps Barnes's best.

A Carlotta Carlyle Novel

Heart of the World

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 York Post). Struggling PI Carlotta Carlyle drives a cab at night to make ends meet. She’s almost done with the night shift when a fare tries to rob her, and her moonlighting gig becomes a crime scene. Unfortunately for the thief, nothing ruffles Carlotta. As she figures out why she was targeted, she uncovers startling information. Whether Carlotta is flying cross-country to safeguard a blues musician’s priceless guitar or stopping a killing at Fenway Park, this flame-haired, six-foot-one detective knows to never let a felony get in the way of a good time. In these three stories—“Lucky Penny,” “Miss Gibson,” and “Stealing First,”—acclaimed author Linda Barnes demonstrates precisely what makes Carlotta Carlyle one of mystery fiction’s most distinctive and engaging private detectives.

Three Mystery Stories

Further Adventures of Carlotta Carlyle

The U.S. Senator from Massachusetts decides to run in the Boston Marathon, and snipping and death threats follow.

Dead Heat

A jittery bride-to-be draws the Boston PI into an “utterly compelling” case of betrayal and dangerous love (Publisher Weekly, starred review). 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). On the outs with her secretive mob boss lover, Sam Gianelli, Carlotta occupies herself with a seemingly routine case. She feels an immediate bond with her new client, Jessie Franklin. Right now, both women are dealing with issues of trust. For Jessie, it’s the man she’s soon to marry. Tipped off that he’s cheating on her, she wants Carlotta to tail him. No sooner does Carlotta get a track on the likely cad, than Jessie is killed by a hit-and-run driver. But when the accident is ruled a homicide, Carlotta discovers that Jessie has being lying about everything—including her name and her fiancé. But it’s the reason for roping Carlotta into the deception that has the sleuth on edge. Because Carlotta’s the number one suspect in the murder. Now she must investigate her own past—and Gianelli’s—to save her neck. Only one thing is certain: “The course of mobbed-up love never runs smooth [in this] startling new chapter in the heroine’s checkered personal life” (Kirkus Reviews). Lie Down with the Devil is the 12th book in the Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Lie Down with the Devil

When six-foot redhead ex-cop and Boston-based private investigator Carlotta Carlyle agrees to help an elderly recluse burglar-proof her apartment, the last thing she expected was that the woman would turn up dead. Now Carlotta must find out why the eccentric yet seemingly harmless Valentine Phipps isolated herselfand needed protection. Who would want to hurt Valentine? What was she hiding behind closed doors? Is there a connection between her murder and an age-old mystery that the city's top brassand its real-estate mogulswant to keep buried? But the most troubling question of all involves the victim's home health aide, Gwen: Why did she introduce Valentine to Carlotta in the first place? The race to catch one of Boston's most ruthless and ambiguous criminals has just begun....

Linda Barnes

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