review - All Washed Up

[Ginny]

AWU - Review

Joanna Campbell Slan has done it again. She's created a book with familiar characters understood in new ways, and a mystery as steeped in history as it is in contemporary headlines. In this case, Slan winds her plot around her own experience last year of human-trafficking smugglers and law enforcement in Paradise (i.e., her home on magnificent Jupiter Island, Florda) We meet again the familiar cast from the Cara Mia Delgatto Series - her grandfather Popppy, friends and co-workers Honora, EveLynn, Sky and MJ whose lives add some additional complications like pregnancy in a tenuous romance, cancer with all the fear and complexity that brings to victim and to friends and family, the miserable reality of ageism which threatens the livelihood but also the very personhood of older adults looking for work. Yet with the skill found in all her books, Slan manages to intertwine and then unravel all of this...well, leaving just enough loose ends to leave the reader panting for the next book! For those who love "cozy mysteries" or just want a book with a solid, captivating story and fun, well-developed characters, All Washed Up is a total must read!