Carlotta Carlyle
Created by Linda Barnes
CARLOTTA CARLYLE's one red-headed, tough-talking, blues-loving, heart-on-her-sleeve-wearing, cab-driving P.I. cruising the streets of Boston, MA, looking for trouble in all the wrong places. And she certainly finds it.
"As smart as Spenser and as mean as Hawk" is how Margaret Cannon in The Globe and Mail puts it. As the series has progressed, Carlotta gone from being something of an overly earnest do-gooder to something of an avenger, willing to cut corners, lie if necessary, and generally reveal a meaner side to her persona, angrier, more conflicted, holier than thou (and everyone else).
In Cold Case, she turns downright mean, making up a story about a dead child and runaway husband to fool an older woman who's had these troubles for real -- while secretly sneering all the while at the lady's Okie accent and bad taste in home furnishings. All of which is a bit more appealling than the cloying cuteness that at times has crept into the series, especially the subplot of her attempted rescue/adoption of a non-white young girl, and the ensuing enforced knee-jerk liberal non-racism that comes off as, well, sounding unfortunately suspiciously like, um, racism.
Author Linda Barnes is also responsible for the Michael Spraggue series, about an an actor turned P. I. turned actor again.
NOVELS
- Heart of the World (2006)
SHORT STORIES
- "Lucky Penny" (1985, The New Black Mask, No. 3)
- "Miss Gibson" (1996, Women On the Case)