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I have waited for years for this latest instalment in the Carlotta Carlyle series. The strengths of this series for me include the exceptional narrative voice of the heroine as she recounts her adventures, and the other characters, both those who make regular and occasional appearances in Carlotta's life, and those specific to a particular book. I like Carlotta's warmth and sense of humour. Linda Barnes also combines a concern for social justice with a recognition that the lot of a PI who wishes to contribute to making someone's life better is often hard. Finally, the series brings the quirks, the good, the bad and the ugly of life in the Boston area to life in its portrait of its setting. This book is set against the background of Boston's huge and very expensive construction project, The Big Dig. A former colleague in the police force hires Carlotta to go undercover as a temp secretary on building sites - her real job is to try and find out if there is fraud. She dyes that striking red mane mousy brown and tries to make friends with the other secretary at Horgan Construction. But this lifestyle is hardly engaging and she is soon tempted into another well-paid assignment more typical for her, looking for a wealthy woman's friend. The story rattled along at a pace which kept my attention. The regular series characters - lodger Roz, old flame Sam Gianelli, "little Sister" Paolina (Carlotta met her through a mentoring scheme and takes a keen interest in what happens to her) were lower profile than normal, and the scenes with Sam and Paolina are thought-provoking. Life moves on in ways which are often disturbing and sad for Carlotta and series fans, but I thought the way in which this was done was realistic and courageous, not to just fall back on these other characters as props. And I quite enjoyed the portrait of office life on The Big Dig, balanced with the real PI work. All in all, a good addition to the series but I do recommend reading some of the others first if you haven't already. I just hope we don't have to wait so long for the next instalment.
Reviewed by Luci Davin, November 2002
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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