The Big Dig

The Boston PI excavates her city's buried secrets in this "shrewd ... smartly told" thriller by the Anthony Award-winning author ( The New York Times).

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).

Boston's largest urban renewal undertaking in modern history draws Carlotta into an undercover gig at the site. It comes at the request of a disgruntled hardhat who suspects the multibillion-dollar project has set off a groundswell of graft, kickbacks, and fraud. The case hasn't unearthed anything but dirt, so Carlotta is tempted into moonlighting on another: a Beacon Street socialite who's deeply concerned about her vanishing tenant, a dog groomer named Veronica James.

Since there's no possible way Veronica would run off without her beloved Norwegian wolfhound, Carlotta's suspicions are definitely aroused. And when her big-dig informant falls to his death in a highly dubious accident, Carlotta's torn between two disparate investigations: an unlikely kidnapping and a likely murder ...

Until they begin to converge, "and watching Carlotta tease out their deep, disturbing connections is pure pleasure" ( Kirkus Reviews).

The Big Dig is the 9th book in the Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.