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Heart of the World (Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries)
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Product Description
When private investigator Carlotta Carlyle learns that Paolina, the teenaged “little sister” she’s been mentoring for years, has gone missing, she immediately starts combing the streets of Boston to find her. Paolina’s indifferent mother, Marta, insists that the girl has run away…but as days pass without word, Carlotta suspects something sinister. Frantically searching for a lead, Carlotta uncovers clues pointing to Paolina’s biological father, a notorious Colombian drug lord named Roldán.
TO FIND THE TRUTH….
Though Roldán is believed dead, Carlotta is convinced he’s very much alive—and that he has abducted Paolina. Searching for answers will take Carlotta from sultry Miami to the Colombian jungle. With each shocking twist, Carlotta is drawn deeper into a labyrinth of conspiracies and corruption…and deeper into the most personal, most treacherous case of her career.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #141084 in Books
- Published on: 2007-05-29
- Released on: 2007-05-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 368 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780312362737
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Barnes's fast-paced 11th mystery (after 2004's Deep Pockets) finds Boston PI Carlotta Carlyle involved in a deeply personal case: Paolina, a spunky teen whom Carlotta loves like a daughter, has disappeared. Paolina's mother, too busy with her new boyfriend and her latest hairdo to realize that Paolina might be in danger, is no help. Carlotta begins to suspect that Paolina didn't run away, but was kidnapped by her biological father, a Colombian drug lord known as Roldán. Finding Roldán, whom much of the world mistakenly believes is dead, is a challenge for even an expert sleuth like Carlotta; no one who knows the elusive kingpin's whereabouts is talking. Carlotta travels first to Miami, where she tracks down Roldán's erstwhile lawyer, and then to Bogotá. Barnes captures Carlotta's quest for Roldán and Paolina in taut, exciting prose. In a strong subplot, Sam, Carlotta's lover, proposes to her, but his mob ties make Carlotta hesitate. These connections culminate in an emotionally cliff-hanging ending that will leave readers waiting impatiently for the 12th installment of Carlotta's exploits.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“An emotionally cliff-hanging ending.”—Publishers Weekly
“With every novel, Linda Barnes reminds us of two key facts—she was one of the first and she remains one of the best. Heart of the World has everything that Carlotta Carlyle fans have come to expect from this seminal series. Barnes has never been better, and that’s saying a lot.” —Laura Lippman, author of To the Power of Three
“Linda Barnes has long been one of the most skilled and artful writers of the crime novel. With Heart of the World she proves it and takes it up to a new level. This is her best.”—Michael Connelly, author of The Lincoln Lawyer
“Heart of the World illuminates the power of our deepest regrets and the fleeting chances we sometimes get to fill the emptiness in our souls. Writing with sensitivity and grace, Linda Barnes once more demonstrates why ex-cop Carlotta Carlyle has become a treasured mainstay in the field of crime fiction.”
—Robert Crais, author of The Forgotten Man
From the Inside Flap
Paolina is more than a sister to Carlotta. She’s the daughter she never had, or never owned up to having. She’s the one constant in Carlotta’s life, more reliable than Sam Gianelli, her mob boss lover, a man whose always unpredictable behavior has become increasingly mysterious.
Heart of the World, Linda Barnes’s most intense, personal, and suspenseful Carlotta Carlyle novel yet, follows Carlotta’s trail from New England to Miami to Bogotá and beyond as she probes the connection between Paolina’s disappearance and the corresponding disappearance of the Colombian drug lord father Paolina has never met.
A breathless and shocking read, Heart of the World is perhaps Barnes’s best.
Customer Reviews
Series' Absolute Best
For those who follow Linda Barnes' delightful Carlotta Carlyle series, be prepared to be blown away by this latest, absolutely brilliant, entry in the series. It truly marks a step up in talent, plotting, suspense and mystery, and is a page-turner from start to finish.
As fans of the series know, Carlotta has a "little sister," a hispanic girl named Paolina whom Carlotta befriended as a "big sister" when the child was 7. Through the years, their relationship has deepened, and now Paolina is in her very difficult early teen years--and a brat. But Carlotta loves her as much as her own child, and herein lies the plot of "Heart of the World."
Paolina is missing. Did she run away? Was she kidnapped? Did she meet with foul play? Carlotta is frantic, and can get very little information from Paolina's embittered mother, Marta. Obsessed with Paolina's safety, Carlotta pulls out the stops to find her--dead or alive. Her search takes her to the dangerous jungles of Colombia, where Paolina's birth father, a famous drug lord supposedly killed in a plane crash, holds the only possible key to the mystery.
Carlotta puts her own life on the line in a big way as she tries to unravel secret after secret, involving the Colombian government, clandestine American operations, underground business dealings with U.S. corporations, and various guerilla factions--all of whom seem to want her dead. The suspense keeps growing on every page, as the reader joins Carlotta in the steamy jungles with danger at every turn.
The ending is a cliff hanger, and a good one--and left this reader absolutely desperate for the next in the series. That's how good this book is...recommended not only for Carlotta fans, but for new readers as well. This book can stand alone.
A Tale of Love and Loyalty
P.I. Carlotta Carlyle doesn't have a family, so she hangs close to those she calls friends and one person she's been very close to is her sort of adopted little sister Paolina. Paolina's got a mother who, well let's just say Mom has other things on her mind than raising her children, like men and good times. Carlotta has done everything she can to replace the love and affection the girl doesn't get at home. However, Paolina has grown up, she's a teenager now and she wants to meet the father she's never know. He's a Colombian drug lord.
When Paolina's mother calls Carlotta and tells her that her daughter has disappeared, Carlotta at first assumes she's run off with her boyfriend. Then it appears that maybe she's with some people who are taking her to her father. Carlotta is, of course, worried about the child's safety and this is going to propel her into the means streets of crime fueled by drugs to the jungles of Colombia in this tale of love and loyalty. As I said, Carlotta hangs close to those she calls friends.
This book is well into the series, but you can pick it up and start fresh even if you haven't read any of the books by Ms. Barnes. From the streets of Boston to the Colombian jungle, from her life of safety to her kidnapping by Paolina's father, you won't be able to put down this book. It'll grab you by the seat of the pants on Page One and keep you there right up to the end.
A wonderful heroine
This was my first book in Linda Barnes' Carlotta Carlyle series and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Carlotta is similar in ways to Stephanie Plum. In this book she follows her "little sister" Paolina to Colombia where she believes Paolina's Father may have taken her following Paolina's disappearance from Boston. I was totally taken in by Carlotta's adventures and the unravelling of mysteries. I look forward to Linda Barnes' next book to see what happens to some of the enticing characters she introduces us to.
