"excellent police procedural"
Eleven months after the Rodney King Riots, Los Angeles
remains fragmented along racial lines and the LAPD is still
reeling from the fact that four of their own are going to
be on trial. Some members of the community are trying to
heal the troubled city by campaigning for the mayoral
candidate that they believe will work to unite the racially
divided city. Korean-American Vicki Park believes that
Latino candidate Mike Santos is the person for the job and
works as a campaign strategist on his election team until
someone kills her. African-American LAPD homicide detective Charlotte Justice,
a black woman who can pass for white, knows how racially
and sexually prejudiced the department is against blacks
and women. She is assigned to find out who killed Vicki
Park and dumped her burned body in a back alley in
Koreantown. Aware of what a political hot potato she is
dealing with and just coming off a suspension because she
killed a dirty cop, Charlotte must once again deal with
dirty police officers and multiple suspects who had ample
reason to want the victim dead. In March 1993, Los Angeles is a city in pain especially the
Korean community who lost some loved ones and much of their
local shops due to rioters. The police department is still
run by the white good old boys, leaving minorities and
women losing the fight against an entrenched system that
has been in place for decades. DIRTY LAUNDRY is an
excellent police procedural that gives a step by step play
of a homicide investigation against one heck of a realistic
backdrop. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted June 1, 2003
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In her award-winning Charlotte Justice novels, Paula L.
Woods has created a rare blend of mystery, suspense, and an
unflinching social critique of urban, multiethnic America.
Featuring an African American homicide detective in the
LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division, this new Charlotte
Justice novel is a sizzling story of murder, politics,
families, and betrayal in the uneasy melting pot of Los
Angeles, where everyone has their own. . . . DIRTY LAUNDRY For Charlotte and her team, the case begins when a woman's
body is found in L.A.'s Koreatown district, where a series
of robberies and murders has already put besieged merchants
on edge. Now the spectacle of a bright, successful young
Korean woman found bludgeoned and bound in an alley is
stirring fears, passions, and city politics. In the hours
after Vicki Park's murder, Charlotte Justice must contend
with a complex crime scene and a beleaguered community's
hostility toward the police. Interestingly enough, Vicki (like Charlotte) lived and
worked in two different worlds: her close-knit Korean
community and the wider political world where she served as
a special aide to handsome, media-savvy Mike Santos, whose
is vying to become L.A.'s first Latino mayor. With twenty-
four candidates running to replace a long-standing African
American incumbent, the mayor's race is shaping up as a
wild brawl, full of dirty tricks and innuendo. Is Vicki's
murder connected to the campaign or is the answer to be
found in the ethnic enclave that nurtured Vicki--and that
may now be hiding her killer? While Charlotte searches for answers, she must also
navigate the perils of life in the LAPD, which complicates
her personal life, namely her budding relationship with
Aubrey Scott, an emergency-room physician. Justifying her
relentless hunt for Vicki's killer as part of her mission
as a homicide detective, Charlotte must face the
possibility that her motivation may also be to ease the
pain she feels over the violent death of her husband and
young daughter years before--a possibility that is
challenged in unexpected ways.
A powerful story about families and the secrets they keep,
Dirty Laundry is a fast-paced, deeply human thriller that
builds to a powerful climax. Featuring one of the great
female characters in detective fiction today, this book is
a fascinating portrait of Los Angeles from the streets of
Koreatown to the power corridors of City Hall. Dirty
Laundry is Paula Woods's richest, most rewarding novel to
date.
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