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Let go from the Beantown police force for insubordination, six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop, part-time taxi driver, and neophyte private eye Carlotta Carlyle is ready for business. Her first client is the genteel and elderly Margaret Devens, whose brother, Eugene, one of the last in a handful of Boston's aging Irish cabbies, has suddenly vanished. The case should be a cinch. Carlotta knows the territory. She even knew Eugene. But when Margaret is attacked, Carlotta fears the disappearance is show more just one hitch in a bigger scheme. Trolling the local pubs for clues isn't going to hack it. Especially when she finds herself at odds with the FBI and a Mafia-connected former lover. As a moonlighting cabbie, Carlotta knows the streets well. But even she has no idea just how dangerous a route she's taken... show lessTags
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In the latter half of the 1980s crime fiction experienced an eruption of tough, bright, resolute and engaging female private detectives, such as Sara Paretsky’s V I Warshwski, Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone, and Val McDermid’s Kate Brannigan. One of the finest, though less celebrated than her peers, was the cab-driving and aspiring guitarist, Carlotta Carlyle, created by Linda Barnes.
A Trouble of Fools is the first outing for Carlotta Carlyle. Although already established as a private eye, as the book opens we sense that business is far from brisk for Carlotta. She does, however, soon acquire a case when she is retained by the highly respectable Margaret Devens to find her missing, and rather less respectable brother, Gene. Ms show more Devens sought out Carlotta because her brother had been a cab driver, employed by Green and White, one of Boston’s many taxi firms. For whom Carlotta herself had worked during night shifts while a student. We learn that Carlotta had subsequently joined the police before leaving to go solo, disaffected equally by the mindless regulation and Neanderthal attitudes that she encountered.
Gene Devens’s disappearance is unexpected because he had, thitherto, been conspicuous solely for his orthodoxy. He had driven his cab, gone for a quick drink with his colleagues once his shift was over, and then gone home. Initially perplexed, Carlotta digs more deeply and gradually uncovers another side to Gene’s life, and that of several of his colleagues at Green and White Cabs, rooted in a difficult and emotive past.
Carlotta is certainly and well-drawn character, and the plot is well constructed, rooted in plausibility. A very enjoyable opening to what I hope is an engaging series. show less
A Trouble of Fools is the first outing for Carlotta Carlyle. Although already established as a private eye, as the book opens we sense that business is far from brisk for Carlotta. She does, however, soon acquire a case when she is retained by the highly respectable Margaret Devens to find her missing, and rather less respectable brother, Gene. Ms show more Devens sought out Carlotta because her brother had been a cab driver, employed by Green and White, one of Boston’s many taxi firms. For whom Carlotta herself had worked during night shifts while a student. We learn that Carlotta had subsequently joined the police before leaving to go solo, disaffected equally by the mindless regulation and Neanderthal attitudes that she encountered.
Gene Devens’s disappearance is unexpected because he had, thitherto, been conspicuous solely for his orthodoxy. He had driven his cab, gone for a quick drink with his colleagues once his shift was over, and then gone home. Initially perplexed, Carlotta digs more deeply and gradually uncovers another side to Gene’s life, and that of several of his colleagues at Green and White Cabs, rooted in a difficult and emotive past.
Carlotta is certainly and well-drawn character, and the plot is well constructed, rooted in plausibility. A very enjoyable opening to what I hope is an engaging series. show less
The main character grows on you. She seems to be a really good balance between messy and disorganized and functional and efficient. If she was too one way or the other, I think she would have been a lot less likeable.
The main character owns a cat. And a bird. These are always story enhancements.
The story takes place in Boston in the 1980s. Some of the most amusing elements are when the characters have to use phones! Hey - landlines, PAY PHONES.
The storyline was sufficient - the author actually surprised me with her skill in tying the threads into one cogent and reasonable plot. I also am going to give an extra star of appreciation to the climactic scene wherein a surprise "player" is actually the one to deal with the bad guy. I am show more impressed because I did not see that coming and it is both fitting and interesting.
I think the author knew when to wrap this story up; it doesn't go on needlessly and it ends when it needs to. show less
The main character owns a cat. And a bird. These are always story enhancements.
The story takes place in Boston in the 1980s. Some of the most amusing elements are when the characters have to use phones! Hey - landlines, PAY PHONES.
The storyline was sufficient - the author actually surprised me with her skill in tying the threads into one cogent and reasonable plot. I also am going to give an extra star of appreciation to the climactic scene wherein a surprise "player" is actually the one to deal with the bad guy. I am show more impressed because I did not see that coming and it is both fitting and interesting.
I think the author knew when to wrap this story up; it doesn't go on needlessly and it ends when it needs to. show less
A missing persons case gets complicated when the client is attacked in her own home. It feels like a genuine could-be kind of gumshoe case, somewhat complicated by time-period politics related to the IRA. No, I don't mean Individual Retirement Account. That's Irish Republican Army, and it was a Very Big Thing for almost 100 years, fighting to free Ireland from England's rule. But in real life, it seems like even the IRA had trouble keeping track of itself (see the wiki page, which lists 7 or 8 changes/manifestations running under 'IRA'), so it is no wonder that Americans find it equally confusing, and a fictional book even more so.
It as a nice balance of introducing Carlotta along with actual mystery, so it is easy to see why the show more series continued. Decent writing, nice characterization, and Cambridge/Boston (I know they are different, don't @me) setting make it a returnable book and above average on my female gumshoe list. show less
It as a nice balance of introducing Carlotta along with actual mystery, so it is easy to see why the show more series continued. Decent writing, nice characterization, and Cambridge/Boston (I know they are different, don't @me) setting make it a returnable book and above average on my female gumshoe list. show less
#1 Carlotta Carlyle mystery, featuring a thirty-something ex-cop-turned PI in Boston, MA. This book was written over 20 years ago, which I didn’t realize until after I’d checked SYKM for the publication date—I did so because there was mention of someone having one of ‘those new-fangled answering machines.’ LOL In most ways, though, it was not dated like that and was an interesting story. Carlotta is contacted by a sixty-something woman who wants her to look for her missing younger brother. He hasn’t been seen for almost two weeks, and Eugene is the only family that Margaret Devens has left, so she’s distraught—but for some reason, doesn’t want the police involved. She and her brother lived together in the family’s show more old Victorian house in a suburb of Boston. Margaret is a rather reserved, refined appearing woman, but her brother Gene was a cab driver with a bit of a drinking problem and a set of rowdy friends who liked to while away their time toasting ‘the Mother country,’ which in this case is Ireland. After investigating briefly, Carlotta discovers that Eugene’s disappearance may be connected somehow to the IRA, which would explain his sister’s reluctance to involve the cops. When Margaret is brutally attacked in her home by two thugs who also ransacked the place, obviously looking for something, Carlotta is obliged to step up the investigation. She cajoles the owners of the Green & White cab company, where she had worked at one time while attending college, and where Gene was also employed, into hiring her to work nights so she could get closer to the situation. A solid first entry in the series made even better by the reader, one of my favorite female storytellers, C.J. Critt—oddly enough, I’d never heard of author Linda Barnes before stumbling upon this book listed in my library’s downloadable books catalog—though there’s at least a dozen books in the series and it’s still going strong. I have the second one on my library ‘listen’ list already and am looking forward to it. There is a romancey component to this—it remains to be seen whether or not it starts getting in the way of the mystery show less
I might have picked this up as it was the first in a series about a female PI, written by a woman. Not a terrible shout. In and out in under 220 pages with some nice detecting and a messy ending. Not sure I'll rush out to read the next in the series, but a nice alternative to Parker's Boston books, even if the writing doesn't have quite the same zing.
Good, solid comfort read in the series that I missed first-time around.
The first Carlotta Carlyle book, in which we meet all of her glorious red-headed self and the accompanying cast of characters
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Mysteries with Female cop, investigator etc.
30 works; 4 members
Novels Published in 1987
81 works; 19 members
Female Author
1,235 works; 67 members
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Books Read in 2021
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Author Information
43+ Works 4,977 Members
Linda Barnes is a writer and educator. She was born in Detroit, Michigan. Barnes graduated from Boston University's School of Fine and Applied Arts majoring in acting, theater education, and English. After graduation, Barnes taught theater in a Massachusetts high school. She wrote a one-act play that won a contest sponsored by the Boston Globe. show more The play Wings was published and performed across the country. Barnes' first crime novel was published in 1981 and featured an amateur detective named Michael Spraggue. She continued with a series of books that featured Spraggue until a short story featured a new detective named Carlotta Carlyle. The first book in that series, A Trouble of Fools, won the American Mystery Award for best private eye novel of 1987. Barnes won the Anthony Award for Best Short Story for Lucky Penny in 1986. Some of her other works include Deep Pockets, Heart Of The World and Lie Down With The Devil. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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rororo thriller (3200)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Trouble of Fools
- Original title
- A Trouble of Fools
- Original publication date
- 1987
- People/Characters
- Carlotta Carlyle
- Important places
- Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Epigraph
- Remember all those renowned generations,
They left their bodies to fatten the wolves,
They left their homesteads to fatten the foxes,
Fled to far countries, or sheltered themselves
In cavern, crevice, or hole,
... (show all)Defending Ireland's soul....
--William Butler Yeats
frmo "Three Marching Songs"
1939 - Dedication
- In loving memory of
Bertha and Jacob Grodman,
my bubbe and zaide - First words*
- Hätte Margaret Devens mir auf Anhieb die Wahrheit gesagt, wäre womöglich alles ganz anders gekommen.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)I hope "Mr. Andrews" is still out there somewhere, searching for Thomas C. Carlyle.
- Original language*
- Amerikanisch
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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