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WASH AND DIE
by Barbara Colley
Kensington, January 2008
256 pages
$22.00
ISBN: 0758222513


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Charlotte LaRue is a 62-year-old woman who owns her own cleaning business in New Orleans. She's happy these days since her son is going to be a father any day now but since the horrors of hurricane Katrina on her beloved city, she finds herself more interested in safety than ever. One day she notices a van parked on her street for two days in a row and then discovers a woman in front of her house asking about her selling it. Even though she knows better, she lets the woman look around her home and doesn't do anything about the man in the car.

The next day she gets to her home and finds Joyce the ex-wife of her tenant Louis Thibodeaux, who is away on a business trip, on her porch. Joyce had been in a hospital for the mentally ill because of alcoholism but, as she explains, because of the trouble with hurricane Katrina there is a great shortage of beds available and so she was kicked out. Joyce asks Charlotte if she can please stay with her until she can find her own place. Again, though she knows better and that Joyce has been shown to be a liar and someone who cannot be trusted, Charlotte talks herself into being a better and forgiving person, and allows Joyce to stay.

Right away she sees that Joyce is not a good roommate, and when Joyce actually steals Charlotte's father's gold watch and pawns it, Charlotte knows that she must throw her out. Joyce doesn't take it well and leaves the house with a curse on her lips.

The next day when Charlotte gets home after the wonderful birth of twin grandchildren, she finds Joyce dead in her living room. The police, including Judith, her cop niece, think that Charlotte and her tenant Louis, Joyce's ex-husband have conspired together to kill her. This is one idea Charlotte cannot stand and she takes it upon herself to find the real killer, and discover why it all has happened.

In this story there's one thing that's wonderful about the character, Charlotte. She shows herself to be a strong woman who has taken to talking to herself with lectures on being a better person, though it is becoming harder and harder. She knows that she is too willing to be someone who criticizes and so she tries hard not to do it. In her heart she's afraid that living alone and running her business will make her become an old grouch and that's the last thing she wants. It's a pleasure to read about a woman as realistically written as Charlotte who has firm beliefs on the right way to act, but isn't unmoving when kindness is called for.

Though she is an amateur sleuth Charlotte knows how to ask questions and get to the inside story, mostly because she can become any place's cleaning lady and she knows that no one pays much attention to the cleaning staff. The mystery is solved because Charlotte has good common sense and a bright mind to boot.

WASH AND DIE stands well on its on even though this is the seventh in this series, so newcomers will like it, as will old fans. The books are always a delight, and I hope to read more of Charlotte's adventures in the future.

Reviewed by A. L. Katz, January 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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