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DIRTY LAUNDRY
by Tori Carrington
Forge, May 2006
320 pages
$23.95
ISBN: 0765312417


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

In her debut appearance, Sofie Metropolis left her no-good fiance on her wedding day and started a new life. She is now working as a private-investigator-in-training in the heavily Greek New York neighborhood of Astoria Queens.

In the last few months she has discovered that she is somewhat good at what she does though she admits she still needs to think before she acts. She is now living her life and taking control of her own fate. However, when it comes to her long extended family, that is another story. Sofie cannot resist her mother's cooking, but when she asks Sofie to do a favor no one can spread a guilt trip easier that her own mother. Sofie might as well do it otherwise she will not hear the end of it.

In DIRTY LAUNDRY, Sofie is asked (to put it mildly) to investigate the disappearance of Uncle Tolly, a beloved dry cleaner who may or may not be involved with organized crime, who may or may not be dead, and whose wife is ready to kill him if he is not actually dead. Confusing isn't it?

Suffice it to say it is in Uncle Tolly's best interest to stay gone as things are a mess right now. What makes things worse for Sofie, who suspects foul play, is that all of the principals in her case are people with whom she grew up in the neighborhood. No one said a life change was going to be easy and if she is not careful, she might wind up disappeared as well.

As ambitious as this book is at the beginning, it fails in its focus with its main story line. DIRTY LAUNDRY is filled with too many subplots (some of them, I must admit, quite humorous) that distract the narrative more than they entertain. You get a small taste of Greek American life, but you cannot really experience it as much as Lori and Tony Karayianni (the authors behind the Tori Carrington pseudonym) would have liked.

The book has its enjoyable moments and some chuckles when it came to certain secondary characters. What the book needs is a better-developed plot structure that keeps the reader going in one direction instead of taking several unnecessary detours. Still, it is worth a try.

Reviewed by Angel L. Soto, June 2006

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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