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Ciara Dunphy intentionally married well so she could have the best life had to offer. Now she has two children and a beautiful, well-appointed home in a small Irish village. She’s running a popular Instagram account where everything looks just so. And she’s the envy of the other women in the village, the woman around whom they congregate.
Her next-door neighbor, however, is much the opposite. Lauren Doyle grew up in the village and was always the object of everyone else’s disdain. She didn’t have much when she was younger, but she inherited money and a nice home from her grandmother. She’s a mom of three, and the father of the kids is a longtime, older boyfriend who never pledged to be faithful.
Mishti Guha is an immigrant in an arranged marriage to a handsome psychologist. She misses Calcutta and has yet to get used to the cold in Ireland. The mother of one daughter who’s around the age of Ciara’s older child, she was chosen by Ciara to be her confidant. But while Ciara has been generous to her, Mishti has never felt as comfortable in their social circle as Ciara is. And she feels bad for Lauren.
Then Ciara is found murdered in her home. And readers find out in this story just how messy things are in her seemingly perfect, orderly life. A number of people in the neighborhood would have been quite satisfied to see Ciara dead. They’re happy to air any dirty laundry they know about her to avoid suspicion.
Dirty Laundry is a good book to read when you’re in the mood to see someone unpleasant receive their comeuppance. It’s juicy and riffs on the current trends that denote popularity, power and worth. I just don’t tend to be in the mood for that a lot; I just found a lot of it to be sad, rather pitiful. This apt reflection of this generation’s zeitgeist is a reminder of just how vacuous it all is. I did think that the end had a fun little twist. Didn’t see that coming.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 39 uses of strong language, around 25 instances of moderate profanity, 7 uses of mild language, and 5 instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes a good number of references to sex, at least five sex scenes that are brief but have some explicit detail, and affairs. Violence includes a death caused by several factors. Mention of a suicide and its method.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
