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The Snake Tattoo

by Linda Barnes

The Snake Tattoo, by Linda Barnes is one of the novels among a series featuring Carlotta Carlyle – the sassy, sexy private investigator and part-time cab driver. Among the best in a current crop of female P.I.'s, Linda Barnes has created Carlotta as the epitome of street-wisdom and knowledge – especially about the seamier sides of Boston, Mass.

Lieutenant Mooney of the Boston Police arrives on Carlotta's doorstep to use her investigative skills in finding a female witness, probably a prostitute, with a snake tattoo on her leg. It seems that Mooney was involved in a bar fight with a Vietnamese man who was pushing the girl around, and Mooney hit him with the butt of his revolver. Now that man is in serious condition at the hospital, but nobody in the bar claims to have seen anything, and the only hope that would release Mooney from suspension and the disgrace of uncalled-for brutality is the girl, who has gone missing.

Carlotta agrees to help Mooney, once her boss and always a friend. But during a stakeout to find the girl, she encounters a young man who also hires her to find someone; a classmate of his who has disappeared. They both attended a very high-class, privileged private school called Emerson Prep. This girl's name is Valerie, and she's only in her early teens. Why the boy would be looking for her in what's known as a sleazy section of town is at first unclear.

Carlotta finds herself now dealing with two separate missing persons cases. During her prying to discover the whereabouts of Valerie, she meets Valerie's handsome drama coach, Geoffrey Reardon, Elsie, Valerie's closest friend, and Valerie's parents – Mr. and Mrs. Preston Haslam. Mrs. Haslam seems to dwell in a world all her own – a world which definitely didn't include Valerie. Preston, on the other hand, was anxious to get her back, but not as concerned as Carlotta thought a parent should be.

In Carlotta's search for the missing witness to Mooney's bar fight, she sees the prostitute at last – bundled into a car between two men, and follows them in one of the taxis where Carlotta plys her part-time trade, but she's forced off the road and crashes into a tree when another car hits her from behind. The girl in the car is gone and Carlotta is right back where she started, with Mooney's hearing looming close. Then Geoffrey Reardon is murdered, with the murder made to look like suicide.

Linda Barnes demonstrates her skill in storytelling as the plot unfolds to reveal the causes for both Mooney's witness and Valerie's disappearances. The conclusion of The Snake Tattoo is a compelling read; just as the actual ending of the book is a hilarious finale to a well-constructed prose symphony. Congratulations to Linda Barnes are once more in order.

Alan Paul Curtis

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