Stealing First

by Linda Barnes

Now available in audio, originally published in the Boston Globe magazine, a short story featuring award-winning author Linda Barnes’ feisty, red-headed, cab-driving, ex-cop Private Investigator, Carlotta Carlyle On a great day to take in a ball game at Fenway, a seemingly harmless run-in with a familiar petty thief throws Carlotta into a wild chase through the park that turns up something far more interesting than the final score.

Genres: Mystery

Audio CD

First published March 5, 2013

About the author

Linda Barnes is an American mystery writer, born and raised in Detroit, and graduated from Boston University"s School of Theater. She is best known for her series featuring Carlotta Carlyle, a 6'1" redheaded detective from Boston. Carlotta Carlyle is often compared to the hard-boiled female detectives created by Sue Grafton and Sara Paretsky. Her new novel, "The Perfect Ghost," which will be published in April, 2013, is her first stand-alone mystery.

Reviews

[Jerry B · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this quite short Carlotta Carlyle tale (originally published in the Boston Globe magazine in 2001), set in Boston’s famous baseball stadium Fenway Park, our quirky part-time cabbie, part-time PI is enjoying an afternoon at the ballpark. While waiting to use the restroom, a small-time thief she recognized from her former policewoman days asks her to take in his four-year-old niece while he waits, which she does. Only trouble was then she can’t find the bum. So she talks the friendly attendant known to her to watch the young lass while she chases down the guy. Soon both of them are being vigorously pursued by three hoods who seem serious about their capture. What happens thereafter is mildly amusing and mildly entertaining, but it’s all over in about ten minutes or so reading time. Enough said.