The Big Dig

Carlotta Carlyle #9

by Linda Barnes

Carlotta Carlyle, the six-foot-tall redheaded private investigator, thought that working undercover searching out fraud on Boston's Big Dig would be a challenging assignment. After all, the Big Dig, the creation of a central artery tunnel running beneath crowded downtown Boston is an engineering marvel, the largest urban construction project in modern history, a fourteen billion dollar boondoggle in the eyes of protesters. Playing a mild-mannered secretary working out of a construction trailer is not quite the thrill ride she had in mind.

Carlotta decides to moonlight, taking on a missing persons case, but the search for Veronica James turns up one dead end after another. So do her fraud investigations on the Dig, and soon it looks like Carlotta has dug herself one big hole. But then a break-in at Veronica's coupled with the mysterious death of a construction worker on one of the sites stirs up a storm, and soon enough Carlotta is in over her head in more ways than one.

Suspenseful, unpredictable, and vivid, The Big Dig is a startling return to form for one of the masters of the crime genre.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Mystery Thriller, Audiobook, Detective, Suspense, Crime

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

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

[Carl · Rating 3 out of 5]

While browsing through mystery books at our library’s book sale, I spotted the title: “The Big Dig.” Well, that wet my curiosity as to me, “The Big Dig” referred to the massive transportation project in Boston that I had the mis-pleasure to drive through several times 20 some years ago. And that is what the book was about ~ so I purchased it and a few years later I read it. Literally, the Big Dig was the creation of a central artery tunnel running beneath crowded downtown Boston. It is an engineering marvel, the largest urban construction project in modern history, a fourteen-billion-dollar boondoggle in the eyes of protesters. Entering the picture is the protagonist ~ a tall, smart, redhead with a bit of an attitude. It is refreshing to find a strong female lead who is an intelligent, strong willed protagonist who leaves me interested in seeing what happens.

A former cop and current PI, Carlotta Carlyle is a six-foot-tall redheaded investigator who is funny, sassy, dedicated and intelligent. (Several have compared her to Kinsey Milhone.) She is working undercover searching out fraud on Boston's Big Dig. Playing a mild-mannered secretary working out of a construction trailer is not quite the thrill ride she had in mind. Carlotta decides to moonlight taking on a missing persons case, but the search turns up one dead end (and body) after another. It looks like Carlotta has dug herself one big hole as the mystery builds.

This is the first book I have read by Linda Barnes, and I enjoyed. Although some readers felt that Carlotta was “angry” a lot, I enjoyed her determination and drive. This is the 9th book in the series; I will get the first one and read more by Barnes. I really want to follow her protagonist more. In reality, the book is probably more a 3 than a 4 ~ but I did struggle with what to give it. I settled on a “3”.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read one other mystery written by this author and featuring this female private investigator. This one features the P.I. going undercover on a big freeway tunnel project in Boston.

First, regarding the setting. I don't get the same feel for Boston as I do in Dennis Lehane's novels. Perhaps Lehane lives in a grimmer and grittier Boston than Barnes-- but I just don't feel Boston as she writes-- on the other hand, never having visited Boston, her depiction of Beantown may be a bit closer than Lehane's dark novels of underworld culture.

Second, the main character doesn't seem to have any pizzazz. Okay, she was once a cop. She once dated the son of a local organized crime czar-- but there is nothing really intriguing about her except she is a bit of a tomboy-- able to fit in as a chick working in the construction industry and equally at home working undercover as a secretary. In fact, in many ways, she is almost a Kinsey Milhone clone. (not that it is bad)

Finally, the plot.. The author takes two mysteries and contrives to twine them together in a conincidence that makes me feel like I'm watching a re-run of the old Rookies television show. You know what I mean.. The nurse chick wife of one of the officers befriends the girlfriend of this week's bad guy. Or the other officer has a cousin come to town who is involved in criminal acticity. Or the off duty cop just happens to get shot-- again!

Despite that, Barnes does a credible job building a fair mystery that has some clever ideas and plot twists that make the book worth readhing. A little bit above average, in my opinion, but not by much.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I'm sorta on the fence about this book. I might be at a disadvantage because there are other books in this series I haven't read. (I didn't know that until I was half way into this one though). It was good, espically the ending. However, I am on the fence about the main character. I plan on starting back from the beginning abd giving Carlotta another try.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carlotta has been hired to help investigate the Big Dig. The setting made this my favorite Carlotta mystery. I liked how the author tied this book into some real history. I went down a nice little rabbit hole reading about the Big Dig because I didn't know anything about it.

From Wikipedia:

The Big Dig was the most expensive highway project in the United States, and was plagued by cost overruns, delays, leaks, design flaws, accusations of poor execution and use of substandard materials, criminal charges and arrests, and the death of one motorist.

Carlotta was investigating those very things in this book. She goes undercover for one of the companies and finds that some things are definitely suspicious. Supplies have gone missing and there's some questions about the overtime, or lack thereof. Then there is the case of the missing dog. One of the other secretaries is worried that she hasn't seen the owners' dog around recently. Carlotta wonders if any of it means anything.

I enjoyed how this mystery played out. It was a lot of fun. And I don't remember Paolina being mentioned as much. The less we hear of her the better. (It could also just be that I blocked it out.)

[Chuck · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Big Dig is a mystery novel that is perhaps more interesting for its location than the actual story. Author Linda Barnes features a 6'1", red-headed female private investigator in Boston. Carlotta Carlyle is tough as nails, but funny and compassionate.

In this story she is hired to infiltrate a construction site in The Big Dig. The Dig is an actual construction nightmare that was designed to put the City's main traffic artery underground. The book was published in 2002, and the Big Dig was completed somewhere around 2006. The novel also features a second mystery involving a missing woman for Carlotta to solve.

The story was slow to take off, but with patience the reader will be rewarded. The second half of the book moves quickly to a satisfactory and surprising ending. The storyline was actually pretty solid, and Barnes makes you feel the city (which is mostly very cold and gritty).

The novel is somewhat dated by technology, but I found it enjoyable and easy to sink my teeth into. This may not be the best Carlotta Carlyle story, but it is worth reading!

[Nd · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the best of the Carlotta Carlyle mysteries so far. Her character seems a little fuller than in the past. In need of a payday, private investigator Carlotta took on a job for Happy Eddie Conklin, another former policeman now on disability and directing the Boston office of a national security firm. To her chagrin, rather than being a laborer on the "Big Dig," her assignment was to work in the office of Horgan Construction looking for leads to suspected corruption, graft, and other illegalities in the billion dollar project. As she became familiar with the employees and processes involved in Horgan's part of the giant transportation tunnel through Boston, she also began to wonder whether Eddie's friendship with Gerry Horgan led him to want her findings skewed in a particular direction. For the sake of self-preservation, she took on another completely separate missing person investigation when it crossed her path, and the pieces of each were multiple and vague.

[Jeff Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a big fan of the Carlotta Carlyle novels this feels very much like a change in direction for the main characters with several of the familiar characters reduced to minor roles. Carlotta is now employed by Eddie Conklin to go undercover to look into a possible fraud on the real life Boston building project called "The Big Dig". This particular story is a bit of a slow burner so a second missing person is added to break up the mundane chores. It's only in the last third that "The Big Dig" turns in a real thriller as Carlotta and the FBI chase a terrorist threat. Not quite up to Linda Barnes but still a top notch read.

[Phyllis Adler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this book up at the library because I had heard the main character described as another Kinsey Millhone. I really liked Sue Grafton's alphabet series, so I had to read at least one of Linda Barnes' Carlotta Carlyle books. The Big Dig was very good, but I enjoyed the Grafton books more. Maybe if I had discovered this series first it would have become my favorite. I'm not in a hurry to read the rest of the series, but I am sure that I will pick up another Carlotta Carlyle in the future.

[Jeannine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really 3.5 stars. A former cop and current PI, Carlotta Carlyle, is part Kinsey Milhone and part VI Warshawski. Funny, sassy, dedicated and intelligent, she takes on an undercover job on a huge Boston construction site for a friend's company and gets her own missing person's case at the some time. Of course, the cases overlap and Carlotta uncovers a huge plot that reaches all the way to DC.

[Ted Pasek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed in the United States on March 23, 2022
This mystery has real-life implications. This is the best Carliitta novel I have read of three or so. The characters are fascinating and the story involves two jobs for two different clients that of course become inter-related. Enjoy!Missing and Undercover

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 9th book in the series by Linda Barnes. It's a solid entry in the series with Carlotta going under cover to investigate possible shenanigans at a contractor site involved in the construction of the
Boston underground freeway system (the big dig). About my only quibble is that I thought the ending could have been more intense, more dramatic.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

GREAT STORYLINE

This book had a great storyline filled with action. The characters were very interesting and mostly predictable. The storyline was based some sad events that give fodder to conspiracy buffs.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a couple of chapters to get into The Big Dig. This is the ninth book in the Carlotta Carlyle mystery series, but my first. The book got better the more pages I read, but at times I got bogged down by the language. I did like the characters and the two cases Carlotta was working on.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never read any of her books before, but it wasn't too bad, if you like crime and the FBI, you will like it.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoying this author

[Christy Camp Ward · Rating 2 out of 5]

First Book read by this author. Storyline was good but it didn't transition well and seemed choppy throughout. Doubtful that I will read another book by this author.

[Christy Tidwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining

[Dee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zany protagonist, Carlotta Carlyle, and The Big Dig (Boston's tunnel project) made for an interesting story with several dastardly deeds thrown in.

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting how the two mysteries intersect. The author paints a lovely picture of Boston and had me looking up The Big Dig. Looking forward to the next one.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dee]

[Ron Powers · Rating 4 out of 5]

good read

Fast moving and interesting facts about the big dig. A little to much how FBI let Carla Al must run the show

[E.R. Yatscoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good story. Good character - Carlotta - with snappy dialogue. Good investigation. Read my crime novels.

[Betsy Fatzinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting read about the Big Dig and Boston. I thought the story got bogged down a bit and confusing but all in all was a good story.

[Joanne Farbman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I like the Carlotta Carlyle character and read her books when I can. This book was up to her usual standards.

[Jerry B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barnes back after 4 years off - story is fair but not great...

We include ourselves in the Linda Barnes' fan club having read her previous dozen books (4 - Sprague, 8 - Carlyle); so naturally we awaited this latest in the zany P.I. Carlotta Carlyle series with great interest despite the 4-year hiatus since her 1999 "Flashpoint". Set against the multi-billion dollar Boston highway/tunnel project of the same nickname, "Dig" offers just enough of our familiar characters to please, but a somewhat convoluted plot left us a little hollow for much of the story. Carlotta is pretty much her usual self, although there's no cab driving / taxi firm hijinks in this one. Her tenant Roz and her cop friends barely put in an appearance either, as she temporarily works for an ex-cop Eddie Conklin to investigate potential contractor fraud on the Project, while at the same time privately working a missing person case for a wealthy Bostonite lady. That the two efforts intertwine about halfway through is a bit of a stretch, and before it's all over, the FBI is all over the place with issues that connect back all the way to the Waco incident. All in all, the plot generated suspense, but also considerable implausibility.

We don't know what Linda was doing her last four years. If it was to make this story zing, in our opinion she might have been better to stick to the familiar terrain of her previous tales and save us much of the torture. We don't want Carlotta turned into V.I. Warshawski - we'll read about her if we want frenetic action from start to finish. Rather, we expected a bit more shrewd street work from Carlyle, a little more humor, a little more running around with her usual friends. So - our fond friend is back, but perhaps not in the best of form. The fan club won't skip it, but to the uninitiated, hardly the best Carlyle episode.

[Lauren · Rating 2 out of 5]

Carlotta Carlyle is an ex-cop, current private investigator. Needing some extra cash, she decides to help out a friend and is put undercover as a secretary for the big dig, a huge over budget in Boston to put roads underground. Carlotta is searching for fraud on the worksite, and ends up working in the same trailer as those running the entire project. She's also taken on a missing persons case, hired by her landlord. Carlyle has her hands full working on both these cases.

I do most of my reading on the train and find that a good measure of how interesting a book is is how often I find myself snoozing off on the train. If I'm very interested in the book, I'll rarely fall asleep. For this book, every time I was on the train reading it, I was falling asleep. Needless to say, I didn't find this book the most exciting.

My main problem with this book is how boring Carlotta was!! You'd think as an ex-cop she'd say and do interesting things but that's not the case at all. I couldn't even really get behind her as an older sister because that part of the story is never really flushed out.

Unfortunately, I couldn't finish this one.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

#9 in the Carlotta Carlyle series.

Carlotta Carlyle series - Carlotta Carlyle, the six-foot-tall redheaded private investigator, thought that working undercover searching out fraud on Boston's Big Dig would be a challenging assignment. After all, the Big Dig, the creation of a central artery tunnel running beneath crowded downtown Boston is an engineering marvel, the largest urban construction project in modern history, a fourteen billion dollar boondoggle in the eyes of protesters. Playing a mild-mannered secretary working out of a construction trailer is not quite the thrill ride she had in mind. Carlotta decides to moonlight, taking on a missing persons case, but the search for Veronica James turns up one dead end after another. So do her fraud investigations on the Dig, and soon it looks like Carlotta has dug herself one big hole. But then a break-in at Veronica's coupled with the mysterious death of a construction worker on one of the sites stirs up a storm, and soon enough Carlotta is in over her head in more ways than one.

[Dobby · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fairly fast-paced, easy read. The author does a great job keeping Carlotta's character real - that is, an imperfect human being doing the best she can at the moment. I admire the way Barnes can take something familiar and look at it from a different perspective. I know I'll never think about missing persons the same way again.

I read this book immediately after finishing Flashpoint, the only other Barnes novel I've read. While I truly like Linda Barnes' writing style, I did not like the Paolina character in that book. A surly, hostile teen with attitude ... um, no. The author did such a great job of making Paolina seem real that I wanted nothing more than to get far, far away from her. Alpha Centauri sounded appealing. The Paolina conflict was a big part of Flashpoint, so much so that I almost did not read The Big Dig. That would have been my loss, because I did enjoy this book.

[Bob · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carlotta Carlyle, ex Boston Cop and now a self employed PI and some time Cab driver gets a job working undercover with various companies working on the Big Dig in Boston. There have been rumors of kickbacks, overcharges etc and she is poking around to see if its true. She is also approached by a woman who hires her to look for her missing border, a young woman who just took off and left her things and dog behind. After doing several jobs she ends up working in the field office of one of the contractors and things start to happen, one of the workers is found dead at the bottom of a scaffolding and things begin to heat up on both jobs as trails lead together and to something all together different.
ISBN - 0312-28270-2, Mystery, Pages - 275, Print Size - R, Rating - 4

[Kirsty Darbyshire]

A bit disappointing on the whole. After a long wait for the latest of Carlotta Carlyle's adverntures I wasn't as thrilled as I hoped to be.

I was pleased with the way Barnes is taking Carlotta's character forwards and the directions that some of the recurring characters are going off in wasn't what I would have expected - this is a good thing. Whether it's true or not I'm not sure, but it feels to me like this series has used the 'two unrelated plotlines veering together on a collision course' thing too many times before. It's not an unbelievable coincidence that drags the two halves of the story together really, just as it hasn't been before, and I did enjoy it, it just wasn't quite as plausible as I'd have liked.