Linda Barnes: Lie Down with the Devil (USA 2019)

From the Publisher:
A jittery bride-to-be draws the Boston PI into an "utterly compelling" case of betrayal and dangerous love (Publisher Weekly, starred review).

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).

On the outs with her secretive mob boss lover, Sam Gianelli, Carlotta occupies herself with a seemingly routine case. She feels an immediate bond with her new client, Jessie Franklin. Right now, both women are dealing with issues of trust. For Jessie, it's the man she's soon to marry. Tipped off that he's cheating on her, she wants Carlotta to tail him. No sooner does Carlotta get a track on the likely cad, than Jessie is killed by a hit-and-run driver.

But when the accident is ruled a homicide, Carlotta discovers that Jessie has being lying about everything -- including her name and her fiancé. But it's the reason for roping Carlotta into the deception that has the sleuth on edge. Because Carlotta's the number one suspect in the murder. Now she must investigate her own past -- and Gianelli's -- to save her neck.

Only one thing is certain: "The course of mobbed-up love never runs smooth [in this] startling new chapter in the heroine's checkered personal life" (Kirkus Reviews).

Lie Down with the Devil is the 12th book in the Carlotta Carlyle Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.

Linda Barnes: Lie Down with the Devil. A Carlotta Carlyle Novel. Open Road Media, ISBN: 9781504057028 (March, 2019), 2.38 MB (ca. 300 p.), $7.99.

Linda Barnes: Lie Down with the Devil (USA 2009)

From the Publisher:
Boston P.I. Carlotta Carlyle wants to know what her on-again, off-again boyfriend Sam Gianelli did to earn himself the secret indictment for murder that's keeping him out of the country. A man with plenty of secrets, Sam won't tell her anything, much less let her help -- and she isn't having any more luck getting info from her old friends at the Boston PD. Sam's exile could have something to do with his mob connections, but it can't be that simple. Nothing involving Sam ever is.

Finding no easy answers, Carlotta goes back to basics and takes a job working for a jittery bride-to-be who wants to make sure her fiancé is being faithful. The case is simple enough -- at first. But Carlotta catches the kind of break she wished she hadn't when her client ends up getting killed. Now, as she's hunting a down a murderer, she can't help but wonder whether love itself isn't the ultimate dead end...

Linda Barnes: Lie Down with the Devil. A Carlotta Carlyle Novel. St. Martin's Paperbacks, ISBN: 9780312356453 (August, 2009), 368 p., $7.99.

Linda Barnes: Lie Down with the Devil (USA 2008)

From the Publisher:
Bestseller and multiple award-winning author Linda Barnes returns with the most personal case to date for her popular Boston PI, Carlotta Carlyle. Carlotta, in unfamiliar territory working on her own behalf, finds herself in the middle of a complicated case that has as much to do with the people she loves as the backstreets of Boston, and beyond.

For starters, Carlotta wants to know what her on-again, off-again boyfriend Sam Gianelli did to earn himself a secret indictment for murder that's keeping him out of the country. A man with plenty of secrets, he won't tell her anything, much less let her help, and she isn't having any more luck with her old friends at the Boston PD. Sam's exile could be connected to the mob -- he is in the family -- but she's not buying it. It couldn't be that simple. Nothing involving Sam ever is.

Faced with nothing but dead ends, Carlotta goes back to basics and takes a case for a nervous bride-to-be who wants to make sure her fiance; is being faithful. Simple enough, but when her client turns up dead, Carlotta catches the kind of break she wished she hadn't.

Linda Barnes: Lie Down with the Devil. A Carlotta Carlyle Novel. St. Martin's Minotaur, ISBN: 9780312332891 (August, 2008), 292 S., $24.95.