Dirty Laundry-Liz Osborne

Dirty Laundry
Liz Osborne
Five Star, May 7 2010, $25.95
ISBN: 9781594148576

Near Seattle, at Madrona Bay Hospital and Medical Center, Nurse Manager of the 3-West Unit Susan Wong complains about the perverted behavior of patient Jason Hilliard to forty year old Patient Relations manager Robyn Kelly. Apparently the twenty-six years old Hilliard flashes the staff though he insists it was done accidentally. He has been an in and out patient several times who no one wants to help. Robyn says the staff does not have to put up with this lewd behavior and she will warn him to cut it out.

Before she can do that she meets bewildered William Jones who says he lives in Central Park New York. The indigent elderly man has a nasty cut filled with maggots so Robyn intervenes and insures he receives proper treatment, but she goes home before she can visit Hilliard. That weekend her friend Police Detective Matthew Pierce injures his back moving heavy bags for Robyn and is hospitalized. Robyn accompanies him and stops to see William only to find another Hilliard complaint. She visits Hilliard who is dead with an IV cord around his neck. Police Chief Roberts botches the case from the onset, but claims he has a suspect so in spite of the warnings from her son and Matthew, Robyn investigates like she has done before (see Masquerade) as she knows who he will blame.

This is an engaging Washington State cozy with a nice late twist. The story line takes awhile to get into the whodunit as the focus is for a good portion of the tale is on the cast at the hospital. As Robyn proves a likable advocate for patients and staff, readers who enjoy a medical amateur sleuth competing with the cops will want to read the airing of Dirty Laundry at Madrona Bay.

Harriet Klausner