Flashpoint: A Carlotta Carlyle Mystery (Mass Market Paperback)

One particular teammate, however, a shy young woman named Gwen, asks Carlotta to have coffee with her. It turns out she's a home care volunteer and she's worried about an old woman, named Valentine Phipps, she has been taking care of in a seedy apartment building.

Valentine says someone has been trying to get into her apartment. Carlotta doesn't take her fears too seriously, but agrees to help burglar-proof her home. However Valentine dies, seemingly from natural causes, before she has a chance to install new locks. However her death is suspicious, because she appears to have been reaching for pills.

Carlotta learns that Valentine was the last tenant still under rent control and she starts to get suspicious. Then it looks like Gwen is being accused of the crime, she's black with priors, after all. So now Carlotta is on the job.

I found this book to be highly entertaining. I especially liked the way Ms. Barnes played all the multicultural characters off against each other, it really helped this interesting and exciting mystery come to life.

As a devotee of the Carlotta Caryle series, I consider "Flashpoint" to be one of the very best so far. As I mentioned in reviews of Barnes' earlier works in the series, she has attained maturity and depth, both in her characters and her plots, and it all comes together in this book.

As those who follow the series know, PI and part-time cab driver Carlotta is a volleyball fanatic as well, playing at the local Y whenever she can. So when one of her team members, a woman she knows only from the games and casually at that, asks for her professional help, Carlotta accepts. In no time, she is drawn into the cruel murder of Gwen's nursing charge: a seemingly harmless elderly woman. Carlotta being Carlotta, she cannot let the murder go, even though her police pals, notably her mentor Mooney, are on the case. And what she discovers leads into a labyrinth of the art world, the music industry and more.

Tied in with this interesting plot is the ongoing story of Paolina, Carlotta's Little Sister. For those reviewers who cannot understand Paolinia in her present highly obnoxious condition, I say go to the mall and take a look at the typical 14-year-old girl! Not the best age in any circumstances for the average female, and certainly not for one whose mother has suddenly abandoned her completely. Is she a rotten brat throughout the book? YES! Will Carlotta be able to get her through this phase and see her to adulthood? That's every mother's question and fear--and I found it completely believable. What was not so believable was the transformation of the mother, Marta, from a very sick woman disabled by arthritis to a sexy vamp on the prowl for men. This transformation was explained in a sentence or two, and sat badly with me throughout the rest of the book. But it did not ruin the story.

There is very little of the wonderful Gloria in this book, and not enough Mooney or Sam Gianelli (all regulars throughout the series), but there is more than enough of Roz, the impossibly erotic free spirit who inhabits Carlotta's rental roooms.

All in all, a simply great addition to the series. Don't believe everything you read in the negative reviews--try it for yourself! I think you'll be glad you did.

I had trouble keeping up with what was going on and why various things were happening. The story just didn't seem to flow smoothly at all. And I didn't see the purpose of the sub-plot with Paolina and Marta.

On that subject, it's time to dump Paolina. At first she was an okay distraction, playing on something that the author is obviously fond of (Big Sisters). Now she's turned into a surly, smart-mouthed brat who seems to have no respect for Carlotta and all she's done for her over the years. Why Carlotta didn't belt her across the mouth a few times, I couldn't understand. On the same subject, Roz is also getting old after being an interesting distraction. I don't think the author could make her any freakier in upcoming books, and she's lost some of the spark she used to add to the books. Her attitude is also getting annoying -- she's Carlotta's tenant, and if Carlotta doesn't want murals of Big Macs on her walls or picked-up-in-a-bar one-night stands staying in her house, I find it annoying to have Roz mouthing off to her, telling her it's her life and none of Carlotta's business.

I hope Ms. Barnes gets back on track, because Carlotta is one of the few female PIs out there that I actually enjoy.