Cold Case (Carlotta Carlyle Series #7)

Twenty-four years ago, teen prodigy Thea Janis vanished from her upper crust Boston prep school. At first called a runaway, she's later named among the victims of a serial killer, a man doing life in Walpole Prison.

Then a new manuscript appears in her family's mailbox. The words cry out from the printed pages, Thea's voice unmistakable even a quarter century since the girl's mysterious disappearance. A new client bearing a dead man's name turns up in the office of P.I. Carlotta Carlyle, looking for her help in finding whoever is sending the book—even if it turns out to be Thea herself.

The investigation leads Carlotta to a prominent Boston family with deep connections and even deeper pockets, and which badly wants the tragic past to stay buried. But after a hit man tries to write his own ending to the saga, the cold case suddenly goes white hot—and Carlotta may be the one who ends up getting burned.

LOST SO YOUNG

Twenty-four years ago, teen prodigy Thea Janis vanished from her upper crust Boston prep school. At first called a runaway, she's later named among the victims of a serial killer, a man doing life in Walpole Prison.

A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE

Then a new manuscript appears in her family's mailbox. The words cry out from the printed pages, Thea's voice unmistakable even a quarter century since the girl's mysterious disappearance. A new client bearing a dead man's name turns up in the office of P.I. Carlotta Carlyle, looking for her help in finding whoever is sending the book—even if it turns out to be Thea herself.

A TRAIL GONE COLD IGNITES ANEW

The investigation leads Carlotta to a prominent Boston family with deep connections and even deeper pockets, and which badly wants the tragic past to stay buried. But after a hit man tries to write his own ending to the saga, the cold case suddenly goes white hot—and Carlotta may be the one who ends up getting burned.

"An intricate, whodunit-and-why…Barnes is an adroit storyteller and she makes her large cast of interesting characters come alive."

—Chicago Tribune

Publishers Weekly

In less capable hands, a tale about a 14-year-old literary sensation who's been missing and presumed dead for 24 years would be hard to believe. But Barnes's writing is so confident and her characters so engrossing that readers will have no trouble suspending disbelief for her seventh Carlotta Carlyle adventure (after Hardware). Adam Mayhew shows up on PI Carlyle's Cambridge, Mass., doorstep with the first chapter of a manuscript that he says could only have been penned by Thea Janis, who disappeared so long ago. When her clothes were later found on a beach, Thea Janis was presumed to be a suicide. But Mayhew, a relative of the author, insists that the manuscript-which makes reference to the fall of the Berlin Wall-proves she is alive and writing. Carlyle's task is to find the writer-with nothing to go on except that the gardener who worked at the private school the girl attended disappeared at the same time. At first, the nimble-minded Carlyle is skeptical that the manuscript is by Janis. But the more she reads, the more captivated she becomes-by the writing and the writer. And when Mayhew tries to get the manuscript back again, she's sure something big is afoot. Janis, it turns out, was a pseudonym for Dorothy Cameron, who came from a high-profile family. In fact, her brother, Garnet Cameron, is currently running for governor of Massachusetts. Why is the Cameron family so desperate to get the new manuscript back and Carlyle out of their lives? There are some preposterous turns, including allusions to JFK and Castro, and recovered memory plays a large role. But the pages keep turning, and Carlyle's wry voice is a bracing counterpoint to the lifestyles of the rich and famous it describes. Major ad/promo. (Apr.)

LINDA BARNES is the author of eleven previous Carlotta Carlyle mysteries and winner of the Anthony and American Mystery Awards. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and son.