We can easily place the novel and much detective fiction into the genre of crime

literature called “noir,” meaning “dark,” fiction with "tough, cynical characters and bleak settings.”

 

The novel is set in Boston, MA, a huge metropolis almost indistinguishable here, except for place names, from other big cities. We see a spectrum of characters, particularly women, from all social classes, from the lowest and most vulnerable illegal immigrants to the vapid party girl at the Herald office that Carlotta bribes for information,  to Marian Rutledge (78), the Harvard-educated attorney volunteering at the Cambridge Legal Collective. The “rich white Brahmin ladies,” the Boston upper class, are not seen, only mentioned (83).

 

Somewhere in the midst of all these classes of women is Carlotta, tall, physically fit, with many abilities considered male – playing sports, driving a cab (aggressively, like a man), being a private detective, once having been a cop, knowing how to shoot, not liking to cook and sew. Qualities that may make some women shudder and breathe a sigh of relief –thank God I’m feminine!  But Carlotta does not need protection or rescuing.   

 

Instead of someone women should scorn, Carlotta Carlyle is a good role model for women, who need to overcome their squeamishness about violence if they are to be truly self-reliant.  (Remember Brenda in “Seeing”who was reluctant to ask the bicyclist for help). Perhaps women are taught from childhood to shrink from violence as a way of insuring that they are submissive.  Perhaps this is part of women’s nurturing hard-wiring,  and perhaps culture encourages and exaggerates inborn qualities.  But though Carlotta is not afraid of violence, she does not relish it. So it is possible to overcome cultural pressures, but doing this does not make a woman into a predator!

 

Carlotta may be tough, but she is not insensitive. We see that she is capable of empathy toward the plight of others – witness her remarks about the way women behave at their volleyball  games, see how she reacts to the exploited woman who comes to her for help,  to her “little sister” Paolina.  We see also that though Carlotta is in many ways a "tomboy," men are attracted to her. Women don’t have to be weak and helpless to procure the attentions of men, if that is their desire! She has been married and has a boyfriend, Sam.  His absence might remind you a little of Ali Kondey’s, but Carlotta, though lonely, isn’t feeling too sorry for herself.

 

She is touchy, defensive, edgy, constantly aware of  inequities – a sexist undertone in an official’s use of her chosen title, “Ms.,” the male drivers who call out sexist epithets though she drives as skillfully and aggressively as any Boston cabbie.  A woman striving to survive in her environment has to be on the alert.   

 

She and some of the characters in the novel so far are concerned with issues of trust, and they are right to be concerned. You are indeed fortunate if you can get through life without misjudging who can be trusted and who will betray you. Most of us encounter this problem at some point in love relationships or friendships. For Carlotta and those who work the mean streets of our cities, trust can be a matter of life and death.