Cold Case

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 show more 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. show less

Carlotta Carlyle is a private detective and part time cab driver. A case comes to her that is as confusing as an overgrown corn maze. Thea Janis disappeared twenty-four years ago when she was only fifteen years old. After much digging Carlotta discovered Thea was a precocious and promiscuous teenager who published a book of poetry to wild success when she was fourteen. In the span of two weeks of working on the case, Carlotta uncovers a tangle of family secrets. Thea's name was actually Dorothy Cameron, a gardener from the Cameron family employee also went missing at the same time as Thea, Thea's sister is a schizophrenic, Thea's brother is a politician running for office while his marriage falls apart, and more than one murder has show more taken place.
Maybe this is a premise I have seen too many times, but the wealth of the Cameron family bored me. Rich woman with an icy demeanor and impeccably dress code has a stranglehold on her adult son, who does nothing but disappoint her. Her beloved daughter went missing twenty-four years ago and has been presumed dead ever since a serial killer confessed to her murder. Her second daughter is in a mental facility battling with schizophrenia. What secrets are hidden beneath the cover of wealth?
On top of all this is a subplot involving Carlotta's little sister and the mafia. Because Cold Case is the seventh Carlotta Carlyle mystery but my first, maybe I've missed some key details outlined in an earlier mystery. show less

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.

Carlotta Carlyle, a private investigator in Boston, is approached and asked to find a woman who had gone missing when she was 15 and had been gone for 24 years. But the girl's family believed her to be dead and that the manuscript that might prove her still alive to be a forgery. Carlotta reluctantly agrees to look into the matter and finds herself blocked on every side. In the end this was a pretty good mystery.

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.