Snapshot

Like the male P.I.'s of the Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane era before her, Linda Barnes stays true to the hard-boiled detective personification, but takes the "male" out of a male dominated genre, replacing them with a female in grand, classic style. And like her counterparts of yesteryear, Barnes heroine, Carlotta Carlyle, is rough and savvy, but with a heart-of-gold and an underlying compassion. In this mystery thriller she's digging for answers of a child's death, helping her little sister from the Big Sister Organization find a father she's never known, shaking up one of Boston's most prestigious hospitals, and healing some old wounds of her own; while she combats a deadly conspiracy of the forces of hypocrisy and corruption in the big city. Barnes creates a character in Carlyle of wit and gravity, tough and beautiful, flippant but dead serious. For detective novel lovers this is a grip-your-seat, page-turner of a must read.