cover image Dirty Laundry: A Sofie Metropolis Novel

Dirty Laundry: A Sofie Metropolis Novel

Tori Carrington, . . Forge, $23.95 (317pp) ISBN 978-0-7653-1241-9

Five months have passed since Sofie Metropolis caught her would-be husband, "Thomas-the-Toad," flagrante delicto with her maid of honor on their wedding day in Carrington's Sofie Metropolis (2005). In this cute if predictable sequel, the zany Greek-American from Astoria, Queens, is a PI-in-training, working on mundane cases for her uncle Spyros's investigative agency. When Apostolis Pappas (aka Uncle Tolly), the popular elderly owner of the neighborhood dry cleaners, goes missing, Sofie jumps at the chance to find him. The only catch is Uncle Tolly might have been laundering money for a sexy Italian mobster. Carrington (nom de plume for a Greek-American husband-and-wife writing team) depicts Sofie's world with the nutty sweetness of baklava. With the focus on fun rather than blood, this chick-lite mystery further develops Sophie's relationship with Jake Porter, the handy but possibly dangerous Aussie bounty hunter, who adds just the right amount of delectable sexual tension to this crime confection. (May)