Copyright 2002 by Linda Appleblatt Barnes. Published by St Martin’s Press, New York.

This was my first Linda Barnes mystery and I was impressed. She is a very good writer – describes people, places and events vividly and moves the story line along rapidly.  I never got bored reading this one.

The protagonist is Carlotta Carlyle, a private investigator who mostly operates independently but in this case was subbing for an agency doing undercover work on Boston’s “Big Dig” – the $14 billion Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel construction project.  She was tasked with searching for theft and graft on one of the many construction sites, but soon was investigating the death of a construction worker who was a whistleblower.  She also took another job searching for a young woman who had gone missing.  The two cases, which initially seemed totally independent, soon converged in a surprising way.

I liked this book very much. Never a dull moment.  No crazy coincidences.  No huge body count.  Just a story that got more interesting with every page.

8 out of 10.

2011 Bantam Books Mass Market Edition

This is a book of epic adventure, #6 in the series featuring archaeologists Nina Wilde and Eddie Chase. These books are reminiscent of the Clive Cussler novels in that they involve fantastic locations and non-stop action.  And a huge body count.  In this book I counted 87 deaths, plus however many people were killed in a terrorist attack on a G20 meeting of world leaders. That is 87 deaths in 500 pages or about 1 death every 6 pages.

The plot involves a search for the Sacred Vault of Shiva, a legendary place that contains, so the story goes, the Shiva-Vedas, stone tablets containing the wisdom of the Hindu god Shiva.  An Indian billionaire wants them because he believes that with the wisdom of Shiva – and his control of worldwide information flow via his Qexia search engine – he can bring an end to the current final stage in the Hindu cycle of existence, the Kali Yuga era – an end that would embroil the entire world in war, death and destruction but would also usher in a new era of peace and enlightenment.  Khoil, the Indian billionaire, wants to be in charge when the new era begins and also wants to do everything he can to hasten its arrival, which he believes can be best achieved by killing all the world leaders meeting for the G20.

So the fate of the world hangs in the balance.  It is the Indian billionaire and his army of mercenaries against two archaeologists and a few close friends.  Guess who wins?

How they win is kind of fun, if you are willing to suspend your disbelief.  In addition to the Shiva-Vedas, the sacred vault contains a wide assortment of amazing ancient fighting machines, including some rocket-powered gliders at least 1000 years old.  One of the gliders is used to escape the mercenaries.  Yes, the heroes board an ancient flying machine and it not only is still functional, but manages to safely transport them out of the Himalayas despite being chased – and shot at – by a helicopter gunship.

See what I mean about suspending disbelief? Pretty ridiculous, really, but the book was a fun summer read.

Still, I would take a Clive Cussler book over an Andy McDermott book any day.

5 out of 10.

Copyright 2014 Barclay Perspectives, Inc. Published by Penguin Random House.

I will give Barclay credit for coming up with a plot that I have never encountered before. A small-time gangster goes into the “private banking” business, taking in cash and other valuables from people who don’t want them where the authorities might find them should their properties be searched.  He takes a percentage off the top and he hides the booty where no one would think to look: in the attics of unsuspecting neighbors. But his scheme encounters a problem when one of his stashes is stolen – obviously an inside job – and, in the course of the robbery, the son of one of his henchmen – who is there on a totally unrelated criminal purpose (taking a hot car for a joy ride) – is killed by the robber.  Accompanying the would-be joy rider is the underage daughter of a high school teacher.

Things rapidly spiral out of control, for the gangster, his henchmen, the people supporting the private banking enterprise and especially the teacher and his family.  The body count reaches 6, plus three earlier deaths that are eventually linked.  The second biggest question is: how is the teacher going to get out of this mess?

But the biggest question is: why the hell would a gangster store booty in the attics of unsuspecting people?  Why not just bury it in the woods, with the GPS locations carefully noted?  It would have been simpler and safer (fewer people aware of the criminal activities, much less chance of being caught in the houses).  At one point in the book the gangster admits that it was all a pretty dumb idea.

Barclay ties up everything nicely. Perhaps too nicely, with too many coincidences.  I think he is a decent writer but I had a very hard time keeping with the story, maybe because the whole idea was so ridiculous.  But I slogged through and the final 100 pages went pretty quickly.

If you don’t mind a head-scratching plot, the rest of the book was okay.

5 out of 10.