Book Review: The Big Dig

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

The Big Dig     Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Linda Barnes
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Private Investigator
Series: Carlotta Carlyle # 9
St. Martin’s, Oct 2002, $23.95, 288 pp.

Once The Big Dig is finished the highway system congestion in Boston and the surrounding areas should ease up considerably. Estimated at two billion dollars, the cost is now at fourteen billion with no end in sight. Private detective Carlotta Carlyle is hired to go undercover and look into allegations of fraud, but she comes up with nothing to show for her fee. In fact, she is fired from the last site for reasons that make little sense.

While working on the Dig Case, Carlotta is also pursuing a missing person’s case. Wealthy socialite Dana Endicott wants Carlotta to find her missing friend and roommate who left one weekend to visit her parents and never returned. Nobody, including her parents, has seen or heard from her. While investigating both cases simultaneously Carlotta finds an unexpected link that send her and the FBI scrambling to prevent the slaughter of thousands of innocents.

Readers who like a hard-boiled urban noir private detective novel are going to love the BIG DIG. The plot is fast-paced, the story line is credible and the characters are totally realistic. Linda Barnes’ latest installment in her long running series is her best one to date as there are a lot of twists and turns in this book. Readers will never lose interest, not even for a moment.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner