Reviewed by Annika
TITLE: Dirty Laundry 
SERIES: Cole McGinnis #3
AUTHOR: Rhys Ford
NARRATOR: Greg Tremblay
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
RELEASE DATE: June 19, 2014
LENGTH: 8 hours, 56 minutes
BLURB:
For ex-cop turned private investigator Cole McGinnis, each day brings a new challenge. Too bad most of them involve pain and death. Claudia, his office manager and surrogate mother, is still recovering from a gunshot, and Cole’s closeted boyfriend, Kim Jae-Min, suddenly finds his teenaged sister dumped in his lap. Meanwhile, Cole has his own sibling problems-most notably, a mysterious half brother from Japan whom his older brother, Mike, is determined they welcome with open arms.
As if his own personal dramas weren’t enough, Cole is approached by Madame Sun, a fortune-teller whose clients have been dying at an alarming rate. Convinced someone is after her customers, she wants the matter investigated, but the police think she’s imagining things. Hoping to put Sun’s mind at ease, Cole takes the case and finds himself plunged into a Gordian knot of lies and betrayal where no one is who they are supposed to be and Death seems to be the only card in Madame Sun’s deck.
REVIEW:
I want to start with the beginning. As all of these books do, this one opens up with Cole in trouble of the unpredictable sort. This time he’s been tasked with getting a little girl’s dog back, for the meagre payment of a chocolate bar. Little did he know that he’d end up being chased by huge, angry dogs and ultimately being arrested and having to be bailed out by a furious Jae. These have nothing really to do with the rest of the book, but they just get me in a good mood, and ready for what’s to come next.
The case Cole is investigating this time – and the one that ultimately leads him into trouble is one Madame Sun, a fortune-teller comes to him with. She’s distraught over her clients that keep dying around her. Cole, and the police for that matter, is far from convinced but he agrees to have a look to hopefully be able to reassure her. He’s barely started to investigate when bodies starts to pile up around him, making him even less popular with the LAPD – not that they liked him to begin with.
This book has a lot more focus on family. Both of Cole and Jae’s families. In Cole’s case it’s in the form of a half-brother he never knew he had. A half-brother he doesn’t want anything to do with – until one day when Ichi stands outside his door asking him to talk. For Jae, his younger sister runs away from her troubled home and into Jae’s apartment, causing extra tension between Jae and Cole. Jae is so torn between family and love and how he can’t have them both.
I love how each of the characters grow with every book. The relationships grow and strengthen. And I don’t only mean between Cole and Jae, but the friendships and family bonds as well. Some grow with baby steps and others with leaps and bounds. We also learn more of the past, layer by layer, teasing the listener and making us need to know more. As with the previous books, there are a lot of sexy times, and some of them are quite emotional and just perfect.
Greg Tremblay is magic, and combining that with the words of Rhys Ford and it’s a guaranteed winner. He portrays these characters to perfection, both in mannerisms and the emotions. It shines through every word. You feel the pain Jae feels, how torn he is between loving Cole and his loyalty to his family. It breaks your heart listening to him asking Cole to leave, and it’s equally heartbreaking to listening to him when he can’t stay away. It’s all there with Tremblay’s narration. He brings the characters to life in a way that very few narrators can.
Then there is that ending… talk about cliffhanger! If that doesn’t make you want to pick up the next book in the series, I don’t know what will.
RATING: 
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