Book Review: Deep Pockets

Reviewed By: Dawn Dowdle

Deep Pockets     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Linda Barnes
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Private Investigator
Series: Carlotta Carlyle # 10
St. Martin’s, Hardback, 3/04, 310 pages, $24.95

Carlotta Carlyle, PI and sometimes cab driver, notices someone following her throughout Harvard Square. She hides and then confronts him. He swears he wasn’t going to hurt her. He says he was trying to work up the courage to talk to her. He wants to hire her.

“His friend” is being blackmailed. He paid once and now they’re asking for more. He finally admits that he, not his friend, had an affair with freshman student Denali Brinkman. He is a tenured Harvard Professor Wilson Chaney. If his affair is made public, it will ruin his career. He wants Carlotta to uncover the identity of his blackmailer so he can then persuade him to stop.

When Carlotta starts digging, she finds Denali recently committed suicide in a fire in the boathouse at Harvard. She was a rower. She tries to interview Denali’s roommate and an ex-boyfriend. The more she digs, the more she questions everything her client has told her. Plus she finds more pieces to investigate the deeper she gets.

Plus Carlotta is dating Leon, an FBI agent she met on her last job. Carlotta isn’t sure where this relationship is going. She doesn’t have much time to devote to it either due to her investigation.

I really like Carlotta. She is a great PI. I don’t feel that she puts herself in dangerous situations without the proper tools like in many mysteries. This is very believable. I like the way that she is able to find out the needed information without just calling someone else to find out everything. Her roommate is a great asset as well.

I also like the Boston setting for this series. The author has done a great job of creating the characters and location in the book. I highly recommend this book.

Dawn Dowdle

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Dawn Dowdle

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