Dirty Laundry

Ciara Dunphy seems to have it all: a loving husband, well-behaved children, and a beautiful home. In her small Irish village, the other mothers turn to her for advice on parenting, style, and influencer success, since a picture-perfect life makes easy money on Instagram. Behind the filters, though, reality is less polished.

Her best friend Mishti is unlike the other mothers in the group. She is unhappy in a marriage her parents arranged for her back in Calcutta, and she is raising her young daughter in a country that feels too cold, among children who look nothing like her. She wants the ease with which Ciara moves through the world, which in one sense makes her just like the rest. Then there is Lauren, the earth mother, born and bred in the village and the butt of its jokes. She lives with her disheveled partner and children who run naked in the yard, a mostly happy household that is ostracized as the one flaw in Ciara's immaculate world. When Lauren finds an unlikely ally in Mishti, she decides her days of ridicule are over.

Then Ciara is found murdered in her own pristine home, and the house of cards she built comes crumbling down. Everyone seems to have something to gain from her death, so anyone who wants to avoid blame may find it a good moment to air their enemies' dirty laundry.

Dirty Laundry is Disha Bose's debut novel, a story of a group of women desperate to protect themselves.