Cold Case

By Linda Barnes

Twenty-four years ago, teen prodigy Thea Janis vanished from her upper crust Boston prep school. At first called a runaway, she's later named among the victims of a serial killer, a man doing life in Walpole Prison.

Then a new manuscript appears in her family's mailbox. The words cry out from the printed pages, Thea's voice unmistakable even a quarter century since the girl's mysterious disappearance. A new client bearing a dead man's name turns up in the office of P.I. Carlotta Carlyle, looking for her help in finding whoever is sending the book—even if it turns out to be Thea herself.

The investigation leads Carlotta to a prominent Boston family with deep connections and even deeper pockets, and which badly wants the tragic past to stay buried. But after a hit man tries to write his own ending to the saga, the cold case suddenly goes white hot—and Carlotta may be the one who ends up getting burned.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Apr 1, 2007
• ISBN: 9781429901482

Linda Barnes

Linda Barnes is the award-winning author of the Carlotta Carlyle mystery series. Her witty, private investigator heroine has been hailed as “a true original” by Sue Grafton. Barnes has also written the Michael Spraggue mystery series and a stand-alone novel, The Perfect Ghost. A winner of the Anthony Award and an Edgar and Shamus Award finalist, she lives in the Boston area with her husband and son. You can visit her at www.LindaBarnes.com.

Reviews for Cold Case

[bookmarque · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Funny, I finished reading this book a year to the day of the day I bought it. Actually, I've read this one before, probably close to when it first came out in the 90s. It shows its age here and there with references to Nynex, Netscape, a CD-ROM phone directory and the relative newness of the internet (and Carlotta's reliance on others to navigate it for her). Overall though it combines the latest case with threads of Carlotta's life that wind through all the books. Mostly involving her "little sister" Paolina, although it is very much in the background. The case itself is an on-again-off-again rathole of old secrets and even older money where the application of the latter ensures the former. Well sort of. The old secret here eventually sees the light of day, but I think the reason for the disappearance and the institutionalization were dealt with too lightly, especially Tessa's complicity.

[djupstrom · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I almost never abandon a book, but I have been trying desperately to finish this one for over 4 months now and I can't seem to care about any of the characters! I quit.

[crazy4reading · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this story. When I picked this book up I did not realize it was part of a series. It was easy to follow even though it is #7 in this series. Carlotta is a private detective. She used to be a police officer. This book finds her working with a high society family to prove that some notebooks are actual fakes of their dead daughter's work. I enjoyed the way the story line flowed and will look for more books by this author and in this series.