Carlotta Carlyle Books in Order: How to read Linda Barnes’s Series?

Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases. Thanks!

With a Boston Accent.

What is the Carlotta Carlyle series about?

Written by American mystery author Linda Barnes, the Carlotta Carlyle series follow the investigations of a Boston P.I.

Carlotta Carlyle is a six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop and Boston-based private eye. Let go of the Beantown police force for insubordination, Carlotta had to start from scratch, building her new career one tough case after the other.

Times are not easy and she even had to work by day as a cab driver to earn some honest money on the side. But there’s always a new case to take.

How to read Carlotta Carlyle Books in Order?

Every book in the Carlotta Carlyle series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

  1. A Trouble of Fools – As she looks for a missing taxi driver, Carlotta’s investigation sends her traveling the pub route with a bunch of blarney-loving geezers whose devotion to the Emerald Isle has gotten them involved in a deadly mix of Boston-Irish politics.
  2. The Snake Tattoo – Carlotta is eating pizza when two cases are dumped into her denimclad lap. One will take her into a combat zone of hookers and pimps, the other onto the campus of a wealthy prep school.
  3. Coyote – When Carlotta Carlyle agrees to help a mysterious woman locate her missing immigration card, she doesn’t anticipate any complications. But then her client disappears, and the immigration card in question turns up on the dead body of another woman. Suddenly, Carlotta is plunged into the desperate world of illegal aliens, the cold-hearted immigration agents who hunt them down, and the deadly “coyotes” who bring the innocents across the border.
  1. Steel Guitar – Several years ago, private eye Carlotta Carlyle’s husband, Cal, ran off with Carlotta’s college chum, Dee Willis, and now the successful blues singer Willis has asked Carlotta to help her locate the missing Cal.
  2. Snapshot – After receiving several snapshots of a newborn baby in the mail, private eye Carlotta Carlyle is drawn into a mystery involving the unnecessary death of the little girl in the photos
  3. Hardware – Investigating a series of cab hold-ups that are depleting the G&W Cab company of drivers, part-time cabbie, and Boston private eye Carlotta Carlyle applies her new computer skills to the case and discovers a troubling secret about her lover, Sam.
  1. Cold Case – A case almost a quarter of a century cold turns red hot again when Linda Barnes’s detective and part-time cabby, Carlotta Carlyle, gets ensnared in the hunt for the source of a manuscript in the unmistakable voice of Thea Janis, the young literary sensation who disappeared twenty-four years ago at the height of her fame.
  2. Flashpoint – Carlotta thinks shes doing a friend a simple favor when she agrees to burglar-proof an elderly recluses apartment. But twenty-four hours later the woman turns up dead, her apartment ransacked, and Carlotta is left with entertainment moguls and real estate magnates breathing down her neck, as well as a lot of questions. Filled with gripping plot twists and razor-sharp dialogue, Flashpoint confirms Carlottas place as the hottest leading lady in detective fiction.
  3. The Big Dig – Carlotta Carlyle thought that working undercover searching out fraud on Boston’s Big Dig would be a challenging assignment. Then, she decides to moonlight, taking on a missing persons case, but the search for Veronica James turns up one dead end after another. So do her fraud investigations on the Dig, and soon it looks like Carlotta has dug herself one big hole.
  1. Deep Pockets – Harvard professor Wilson Chaney’s position in life is hanging by a thread; his marriage, his reputation, not to mention his tenure at Harvard are in the hands of a blackmailer, someone threatening to sell Chaney’s secrets at very high prices. So he hires Boston private investigator Carlotta Carlyle to track down the blackmailer and put a stop to the scheme.
  2. Heart of the World – When private investigator Carlotta Carlyle is wakened by a late-night phone call, she discovers that her “little sister,” Paolina, the child with whom she was paired years ago by a local mentoring program, is missing. Carlotta combs the Boston streets looking for Paolina, torn between anger at the thoughtless teenage runaway and anxiety that something has really happened to her.
  3. Lie Down with the Devil – On the outs with her secretive mob boss lover, Sam Gianelli, Carlotta occupies herself with a seemingly routine case. She feels an immediate bond with her new client, Jessie Franklin. Right now, both women are dealing with issues of trust. For Jessie, it’s the man she’s soon to marry. She wants Carlotta to tail him. No sooner does Carlotta get a track on the likely cad, than Jessie is killed by a hit-and-run driver. But when the accident is ruled a homicide.

What should you read if you like the Carlotta Carlyle novels?

If you like reading Linda Barnes’ Carlotta Carlyle Books, you may be interested in Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Milhone series.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *