Dirty Laundry

Ciara, a social media influencer in her unnamed Irish village, seems to have the perfect husband and children but ends up dead and alone in her spotless house, in this strong domestic suspense debut. Is it murder or suicide? Mishta, Ciara’s best friend and neighbor, is still adjusting to moving to Ireland from Calcutta in an arranged marriage. Lauren, whose back garden abuts Ciara’s, is the outcast of the neighborhood mom group—she criticizes Ciara on Instagram for flirting with other people’s husbands and tries desperately to steal Mishta’s friendship from Ciara. Newcomer narrator Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan, also Indian Irish like author Bose, narrates the three women effectively with Irish and Indian accents, and even includes sniffs at the beginning, as Mishta suffers from a “perpetual case of the sniffles.” Very few of the characters are likable (including the clueless husbands), so this is a psychological whodunit where listeners might understand why Ciara ends up dead.