Although the title may suggest a Western setting, Coyote brings back to familiar Boston territory six-foot-tall, flame-haired sleuth Carlotta Carlyle. This time the ex-cop and sometime cab-driver prowls overcrowded apartments where illegal aliens rest--and sometimes find their final resting places--after their ill-paid labors.
Carlotta Carlyle's newest case begins when the redheaded private detective helps burglar proof the apartment of an old woman, who is promptly murdered, plunging Carlotta into a murderous maelstrom of real-estate tycoons and entertainment big-shots.
When private investigator Carlotta Carlyle is wakened by a late-night phone call, she discovers that her “little sister,” Paolina, the child with whom she was paired years ago by a local mentoring program, is missing. Carlotta combs the Boston streets looking for Paolina, torn between anger at the thoughtless teenage runaway and anxiety that something has really happened to her
In Barnes's utterly compelling 12th mystery to feature Boston PI Carlotta Carlyle (after 2006's Heart of the World), Carlyle is still engaged to her mob-associated fiance, Sam Gianelli, though she's waiting for Sam to explain why he's disappeared in the wake of rumors linking him to a dead girl. Then a woman calling herself Jessica Franklin visits Carlyle armed with [...] a doubt about his fidelity. After Franklin becomes the victim of a hit-and-run, Carlyle is the most likely suspect. When the police discover that Jessica Franklin is an alias, Carlyle, in more trouble than ever, turns to her old friend and former boss at the Boston PD, Joseph Mooney.
Those two days in May seem to be a highpoint in Colin Pinnock's life: a stunning election victory, a new govenment, and junior office for himself. But among the many congratulations he receives is one hostile message, a grubby card asking: 'Who do you think you are?' Is this merely someone putting him back in his place, or do the words have a more profound meaning? Who, indeed, is he? And who were his real parents?
