by Linda Barnes
First published 1989
Carlotta Carlyle should walk away from this case. The former police officer turned private investigator knows trouble when she sees it. But her license sits unused, and the elderly woman seems harmless enough. She just wants Carlotta to find her missing brother, an aging taxi driver who has vanished without explanation. How dangerous could one old cabbie be? Carlotta discovers the answer as she digs deeper into Boston's streets. The missing man has stumbled into something far worse than a simple disappearance. Money gets washed clean through shadowy channels. Drugs move through the city's veins. And pulling the strings behind it all lurks the treacherous world of Boston Irish politics, where loyalty runs deep and betrayal runs deeper. What started as a routine missing person case becomes a fight for survival. Carlotta must navigate corrupt officials, dangerous criminals, and family secrets that some people will kill to protect. In a city where everyone knows everyone, trust becomes the most dangerous gamble of all.
Genres: mystery, crime, thriller, detective
Vibes: dark, fast-paced, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Boston
Period: 20th-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Chivers Large print (Chivers, Windsor, Paragon & C