I don't like the term "chick lit", although I use it frequently, generally for aesthetic purposes. (It sounds better than "women's lit" or "feminist lit", in my opinion.) I use it to describe a vast amount of stuff that probably isn't chick lit, including everything from Camille Paglia to romance novels. Generally, I don't read a lot of chick lit, although I certainly don't have a problem reading women authors. Some of my favorite authors are women.(Holy shit, that sounds awful...)Okay, let me start over: In the rather amorphous and generally sexist-labelled genre of "chick lit", I have come to find that women who write in historically predominantly male-dominated genres (science fiction, horror, mystery) often bring to the genre an interesting and often fresh take. Not always, of course. Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" series "girl"-ifies vampires and werewolves to the point that they are no longer threatening. They are warm and fuzzy creatures who have been de-fanged and de-clawed. Vampires and werewolves are SUPPOSED to be terrifying. They are NOT supposed to be warm and fuzzy. Then again, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series is an interesting and fun twist on the vampire mythos. Female readers can swoon over the romantic bits and the the vampires are STILL scary.Within the mystery genre, women have made quite a name for themselves. Writers like Sue Grafton, Sara Paretsky, and Marcia Muller have introduced some tough female private eyes into the genre while still managing to maintain their feminine side. Even authors like Janet Evanovich and Casey Daniels, who tend to write more comedy than crime, have brought a new twist to detective fiction.Linda Barnes is somewhere between Grafton and Evanovich. Her private eye, Carlotta Carlyle, is a tough, hard-boiled Boston P.I./ cab driver with a sassy streak. In her novel "The Snake Tattoo" (written in 1989, and I'm not sure where it falls in the series), starts off with Carlyle settling in for the night before being awakened by her cop-friend, Lieutenant Mooney, who is being investigated by Internal Affairs. Mooney insists he is innocent, and Carlyle believes him, only partly because she secretly has the hots for him. She takes on his case. Almost simultaneously, she takes on a case of a young suburban runaway girl.I'll be honest, Barnes's novel started off like an Evanovich novel---silly, comedic, with a focus mainly on handbags and hair-dos, which is exactly the kind of chick lit I'm NOT into---but then gradually takes on a darker, more noir-ish edge, like Grafton, which is the kind of chick lit I like. Basically, "The Snake Tattoo" is just a good detective novel, and Carlotta Carlyle will be a fictional detective I will check out again in the near future.
As soon as you start reading one of the Carlotta Carlyle mysteries you know you're in for a great ride. Carlotta is my favorite P.I. of all times, because life isn't always smooth for her, but she takes it all in stride: Her financial state, her arty-weirdo live-in tenant Roz, and her not so clear on-off relationship with mob-son Sam Gianelli. She's a fighter and she has such a great personality. She's loyal, driven and has a code of honor that I admire in her difficult profession.Here, Carlotta finds herself investigating two cases: one involves her good friend and ex-colleague, Mooney, the other is more surprising: a young girl from her well-to-do neighborhood has run away, and the reason why is anyone's guess till the very end of the story.I've known since long that Linda Barnes doesn't disappoint, and here again, she takes the reader for a thrilling few hours of reading pleasure.
What do You think about The Snake Tattoo (2004)?
I had to buy this book in paperback because it is the second book in Linda Barnes's Carlotta Carlisle series, and it is not available on Kindle. During the reading process, I kept losing my place, taping unsuccessfully to turn a page and also unsuccessfully taping to get a word definition. An altogether cumbersome routine that I hope to have to rarely repeat! I was glad that I purchased the book as the mysteries were good and there was enough character information throughout that I would have been confused when it was time to read the third installment. Despite the manual labor, I'm still enjoying Carlotta and her Boston.
—Jan
I'm really enjoying this series. Carlotta is smart and tough. Roz is colorful and resourceful. Mooney is trustworthy if a bit crusty. Sam, Carlotta's love interest is hot but mysterious. The mysteries are engaging. This is the 2nd book in the series but 3rd book I've read. I'm going to keep reading them until I'm done with the whole series. I downloaded this as an audio book. Carlotta and company have been my dinner companions the last few nights. Very pleasant as even the crime scenes aren't too gory.
—Gail
