With the city still reeling from the aftershock of the Rodney King riots, the mean streets of Los Angeles have gotten a lot meaner and more treacherous as African-American detective Charlotte Justice of the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide division returns to active duty after serving out a four-month suspension following a previous investigation which had ended tragically. Three weeks away from a potentially explosive...multi-candidate...mayoral primary, LA is a powder keg of racial/political tensions that's ready to blow at the slightest provocation. When Charlotte and her new partners, black lesbian Billie Truesdale and white 'newbie-Tec' Roger Middleton, catch their first case as a team (the cold-blooded killing of a politically-well-connected Korean-American woman whose dead body has been found bound, gagged and dumped in a Koreatown alley), it could well prove to be the high-profile spark that will destroy LAPD's last remaing shreds of credibility and set the city ablaze. Savvy, stunning Vicki Park had been working as a campaign strategist for charismatic, former news-anchor Mike Santos who is running hard and well-ahead of the pack in his campaign to become LA's first Mexican-American mayor. Apparently dissatisfied with the role which she's being asked to play in his race, has Vicki's discontent caused her murder? Charlotte's investigation becomes further complicated by another death...that of a Korean detective who has been serving as her link with the community: was it an accident or was he set up? and she needs every bit of her hard-won street smarts, detective skills and self-control to work her way through a maze of false clues, misleading information and an old-boys' Department network that would like nothing better than to see her lose her badge permanently. Inevitably, as she starts to zero in on the how's and why's of Vicki's murder, the stakes rise, and the final confrontation between Charlotte and a traitorous killer/cop had me glued to the pages until I could safely breathe again.

That's actually the best criteria that I have to praise Paula L. Woods as a fresh, unique and utterly absorbing new voice on the police procedural scene! This lady can WRITE! I came to Charlotte Justice cold, and was excited to the point where I stopped reading after only a couple of chapters (hard to do!) in order to seek out her two previous adventures first. Yes, this novel will absolutely stand-alone, but I quickly realized that if I really wanted to be able to savor its nuances...especially those having to do with the black community: its family values and focus which are so integral to Ms. Woods' plotting...obtaining additional background material from "Inner City Blues" and "Stormy Weather" could and did make an enormous difference in my enjoyment of "Dirty Laundry". I was especially enthralled and impressed by Ms. Woods' 'take' on Chalotte's experiences in dealing with the barbed-wire, racist/sexist climate in LAPD. This novel rang with the fervor of I'll-tell-it-like-it-is-let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may! authenticity, and I can tell you this: whatever she chooses to write in the future, I plan to be right there with her.

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

Paula L. Woods comes back onto the sleuth scene in her third Charlotte Justice tale, DIRTY LAUNDRY. This time, our fearless diva is back on the job after an administrative leave, and ready to roll some heads. After taking on the title of supervisor, Justice is assigned to a case involving a dead Korean girl whose body was found in an alley. The vic, Vicki Park, was a member of the campaign team for the Latino mayorial candidate, Mike Santos. Something stinks in the events leading up to Park's demise, and Charlotte and Billie Truesdale are on it like white on rice.

In DIRTY LAUNDRY, not only is the Park case part of the plot, but Charlotte's own life transgressions and dirty laundry come out in the open. She is forced to confront feelings about her family, her career, her fiancee Aubrey, and the passing of her husband and daughter years earlier. A novel about secrets, lies, and letting go, DIRTY LAUNDRY won't disappoint followers of Justice. Woods' prose is tight and, once again, Charlotte was allowed into my heart. Another page turner from this talented mystery writer, DIRTY LAUNDRY is an especially symbolic read for those who know that "digging up dirt will just get you dirty," but it'll all come out in the wash.

Reviewed by CandaceK
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

It's hard to find a more crowded section of a bookstore than the pregnancy/parenting section (unless it is the computer guides for dummies section) But how many different caring-for-babies books does a new parent need? Hopefully only one or two, but keep in mind there are different books for different personality types and needs.

Which is why "First-Year Baby Care" makes a good book for a new father. Written by a pediatrician and mother, it contains all the necessary information in an easy-to-use, nicely illustrated format. But doesn't have the personal vignettes and "tales from the front lines" advice that books like "What to Expect When You're Expecting" have, advice and personal accounts that I found comforting as a new mother. I would suspect fathers would benefit more from a book like this, with it's "cut-to-the-chase and tell me how to diaper this baby" approach.