Flashpoint

Book Summary

The Boston PI tries not to get scorched when an arsonist targets her. "I'm crazy about Carlotta! More! More! More!" (Sue Grafton). Six-foot-tall, redheaded ex-cop and Boston-based private eye Carlotta Carlyle is "the genuine article: a straightforward, funny, thoroughly American mystery heroine" (New York Post).

Carlotta Carlyle knows all about urban survival. That''s why she''s happy to do her neighbor, Valentine, a favor like this one. The elderly recluse needs help burglar-proofing her rent-controlled apartment. But it seems Valentine''s fears are more immediate and threatening than she''s letting on. Because just twenty-four hours later, the old woman turns up dead in her ransacked home.

Finding out who''d want to kill a nice old lady lands Carlotta on the heels of a hotshot music executive claiming to be Valentine''s last living relative, a real-estate mogul with a knack for eviction, and Valentine''s terrified healthcare worker. But when Carlotta becomes the target of an arsonist, she knows she''s on to something hot: a city-wide conspiracy that Beantown''s top brass want dead and buried—along with the woman who knew too much.

Delivering a "twisty plot, colorful language, and even more colorful characters" (The Dallas Morning News), "Flashpoint further cements Carlotta''s place in the pantheon of contemporary P.I.s" (Chicago Tribune).