Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools (USA 2018)

From the Publisher:
This award-winning debut mystery introduces a Boston PI who's "one of the most sparkling, most irresistible heroines ever to grace the pages of a whodunit" (Chicago Sun-Times).

Six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop and Boston-based private eye Carlotta Carlyle is "the genuine article: a straightforward, funny, thoroughly American mystery heroine" (New York Post).

Let go from the Beantown police force for insubordination, 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 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...

Winner of the American Mystery Award and nominated for both the Edgar and Shamus Awards, this first book in the series is "beautifully plotted, exciting, moving, and leavened with wit" (Robert B. Parker).

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools. A Carlotta Carlyle Mystery. Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504053075 (June, 2018), eBook, 2.46 MB (ca. 274 p.), $7.99.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools (USA 2005)

From the Publisher:
TROUBLE...
Since being bounced from the Boston police for insubordination after six years of service, Carlotta Carlyle has set up shop as a private investigator ready to deal with anything from lost pets to substantially grander larcenies. Though Carlotta, a six-foot-tall, redheaded ex cop, part-time cabbie, and neophyte private eye, works out of her home, it's rare that clients stop by unannounced. Especially clients like the genteel, reserved, elderly spinster Miss Margaret Devens.

ALWAYS COMES...
With cash flow problems and a caseload so light that she's taken to reading her cat's mail, Carlotta accepts the case of Miss Devens's missing brother Eugene. Oddly enough, Carlotta knew Eugene when they worked together back at Green and White Cab. As far as Carlotta sees it, this case should be a pinch -- until two thugs looking for money send her client to the hospital.

WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT...
The old lady's missing brother seems to have been involved in something much more dangerous than simply driving a cab. Carlotta is determined to do whatever it takes?work the cops, pose as a hooker, and even drive a cab again -- to find Eugene before it's too late.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools. A Carlotta Carlyle Novel. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312359438 (June, 2005), 240 p., $6.99.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools (USA 1999)

From the Publisher:
It's the kind of case that has "NO!" written all over it. But Carlotta Carlyle -- Boston's six-foot-one, redheaded, wise-cracking, taxi-driving ex-cop -- has a Pl. license getting moldy from disuse, so she takes on the search for a little old lady's missing brother. After all, how much trouble could an aging cabbie get into?

Plenty, Carlotta learns, as she uncovers a scam of laun- dered money and drug running, all mixed together in that dangerously powerful brew known as Boston-lrish politics...

In a debut that Sara Paretsky hailed as "delightful, taut, and engaging," Carlotta Carlyle won the hearts of readers everywhere.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools. A Carlotta Carlyle Mystery. Hyperion, ISBN: 0786889535 (October, 1999), 274 p., $4.50.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools (UK 1993)

From the Publisher:
Introducing Carlotta Carlyle, an ex-cop dismissed for insubordination, a sometime Boston cabbie and a committed volley-ball player down the YWCA, who sets herself up as a private eye and nose-dives into trouble. At six foot one with flame- red hair and no time for authority, Carlotta scares most men off; the ones that remain tend to be either cops or Mafiosi, neither of whom are famed for their commitment to women's liberation.

So, going it alone with a very light case load, Carlotta accepts old Margaret Devens' request to find her brother, a Boston Irish cab driver whose suspect connections make the case very much more dangerous than could be expected.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools. A Carlotta Carlyle Mystery. Coronet, ISBN: 0340509198 (April, 1993), 224 p., £4.99.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools (UK 1989)

From the Publisher:
When you live in a neighbourhood of Boston, Mass. where the burglars almost stand in line to make an entry, you don't open your door to just anyone.

When you're a woman living alone -- no matter what the phone book says - with only a not very domestic cat for company, you're even more wary.

And when you're a private eye, you get some distinctly odd people wanting to make house calls.

But a quick squint through the front door peephole suggested it might be safe to undo the five locks. The little, old, lavender-and-lace lady on the step didn't look like trouble.

Which was where Carlotta Carlyle made a bad mistake...

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools. A Carlotta Carlyle Mystery. Coronet Crime, ISBN: 0340509198 (March, 1989), 224 p., £3.50.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools (USA 1988)

From the Publisher:
"You will be caught up in Carlotta's adventures. For she is one of the most sparkling, most irresistible heroines ever to grace the pages of a whodunit... It's top-drawer all the way?' CHICAGO SUN-TIMES

It's the kind of case that has "NO!" written all over it. But Carlotta Carlyle -- Boston's six-foot-one, redheaded, wisecracking, taxi-driving ex-cop -- has a P.I. license getting moldy from disuse, so she takes on the search for a little old lady's missing brother. After all, how much trouble could an aging cabbie get into?

Plenty, Carlotta learns, as she uncovers a scam of laundered money and drug running, all mixed together in that dangerously powerful brew known as Boston-Irish politics...

"Even in the detective-glutted Boston area, it's hard to miss Carlotta Carlyle... This is an author who's nobody's fool when it comes to writing a slick lively story that's all in good fun" ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools. PI Carlotta Carlyle goes undercover to drive a missing cabbie out of hiding. Fawcett Crest, ISBN: 0449216403 (December, 1988), 240 p., $3.50.

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools (USA 1987)

From the Publisher:
"Spenser, you're not the only PI in Boston." -- Boston Woman
"You are Miss Carlyle, the investigator?" the elderly, birdlike lady who called herself Margaret Devens inquired with a nice touch of disbelief.
Carlotta Carlyle, ex-Boston cop, parttime cabbie, neophyte private eye, hadn't been expecting a Sunday morning client. Her unruly red hair was plunked on top of her head. Her sweatpants showed most of her right knee through a tear, and her shirt wasn't much better. For the rest, she was barefoot and hadn't even thought about makeup. At six one with size 11 feet, Carlotta goes barefoot a lot (for all practical purposes women's shoes stop dead at size 10).

"I'm here because my brother's disappeared," Miss Devens continued. "You do handle that kind of thing?"

Since being bounced from the Boston police for insubordination after six years of service, Carlotta has set up shop as a private investigator ready to deal with anything from lost pets to substantially grander larcenies. What with cash flow problems and a caseload so light that she's taken to reading her cat's mail, Carlotta accepts the case. She remembers Margaret Devens's missing brother Eugene -- they used to work together back at Green and White Cab.

So begins one of the most deftly plotted mystery novels of recent years. Linda Barnes knows the feel of Boston as intimately as Robert Parker and makes that complex city of class incongruities, intense loyalties, and surprisingly solid citizens live before the reader's eyes. And in Carlotta Carlyle she has created "a wily, doggedly determined detective [who] also happens to be a splendidly fresh storyteller." (New Black Mask Quarterly)

Linda Barnes: A Trouble of Fools. St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312011008 (November, 1987), 208 p., $15.95.