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August 17, 2008

Lie Down With The Devil by Linda Barnes

I discovered Linda Barnes through NoveList, the Readers Advisory service that helps people find books they would like based on books that they've liked in the past. In my case, I was looking for a readalike for Sara Paretsky, and that led me to Linda Barnes' Carlotta Carlyle PI mystery series. Carlotta is a former police officer who is involved with a cast of characters whom you grow to know and care about over the life of the series. She is smart, independent and conflicted.

In Lie Down With The Devil, the twelfth and presumably final book in the series, Carlotta takes on a client who isn't exactly what she seems to be, and as the mystery unfolds it involves Carlotta's absent mob-connected fiance, her former boss who has always carried a torch for her, and a mystery that involves casino gambling.

As with the other books in this series, I became attached to Carlotta and the people in her life. As with Sara Paretsky's V.I. Warshawski series, I enjoyed spending time with these characters and was somewhat sad to come to the end of the tale. Ms. Barnes is a gifted writer with a talent for crafting compelling stories. I thank NoveList for matching me up with this series.

Posted by In Repair at August 17, 2008 10:49 PM

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