The visit of a mysterious Hispanic woman requesting aid in discovering her missing green card embroils Boston private detective Carlotta Carlyle in the dangerous world of illegal aliens, the "coyotes" who prey on them, and murder
A blazing redhead, a loner with a cabbie's license and a mean volleyball spike, Carlotta Carlyle has a talent for trouble. Tonight her mysterious client speaks broken English and clutches a newspaper detailing the discovery of a mutilated body in the Boston Fens. The corpse has an immigrant's green card and that card, the client claims, belong to her. She wants it back. But who is she? Where has she gone? And why do all the leads connect her to Paolina, Carlotta's charming urban "little sister"? Paolina won't talk. And suddenly Carlotta is plunged deep inside the desperate world of illegal aliens, the cold-hearted immigration agents who hunt them down, and the deadly "coyotes" who lead even innocent young girls to the slaughter.
"Move over Spenser. Make permanent room on the streets of Boston for another sleuth who's big (six foot one), strong, and tough as nails but soft at the core." -- Entertainment Weekly
"One of the most sparkling and irresistible heroines ever to grace the pages of a whodunit!" -- Chicago Sun-Times
"[Carlotta is] the genuine article: a straightforward, funny, thoroughly American mystery heroine." -- New York Post
