In the Wash: The Rona Shively Stories

Rebecca Benston
PublishAmerica (2006)
ISBN 1424154251
Reviewed by Ellen Hogan for Reader Views (5/07)

Rona Shively is a private detective who is hired by Gilbert Delvecchio to find his ex-wife. The problem is now his ex-wife is a man and remarried to Rita Gofski. The case intrigues her, so she takes it and starts making inquiries to the whereabouts of Luther Janetti formerly Lucy Deardon.

Rona goes and sees a friend Kimball McInaney; after eating dinner they look at a book that Kimball has. Rona and Kimball met in prison and the book contained information on other convicts in the prison. Kimball opened the book to a page on Rita Gofski. She had been in prison on a drug charge. After getting the information, Rona leaves Kimball's apartment. She sees a man go into the building she has just left and waits around. Then she goes back in and finds Kimball dead.

Rona is a hard as nails investigator whose job comes first and relationships come second. She rationalizes every move that she makes. "While I waited for the police, I thought about how it might look if they found Kimball's notebook. Some of the people in that binder were cops. Quickly, I looked around the apartment for the binder we had been working from earlier. It lay on Kimball's dresser in the bedroom. I picked it up and ran for the door. The cops didn't need to know that I had been there. My call had been anonymous and I really just wanted to make sure someone knew what had happened."

Along the way, other friends of Rona's get involved and she tries to keep them safe. She also gets to know her neighbor Charles. But the relationship that matters to Rona is the one developing between herself and her best friend Norman Dent.

There are close calls and a shootout to make the book interesting. Once you start it you want to keep going and find out what is going on. It is a quick read, but worth every minute.

Anyone who loves a good mystery will love this book. It keeps your interest from the first word and hold on till the end. I would highly recommend “In the Wash” -- as a mystery reader, I enjoyed it very much.

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