Spin Doctor

Leslie Carroll is the author of twenty books in three genres, including a series of five nonfiction titles on the loves and lives of European royalty: Royal Affairs, Notorious Royal Marriages, Royal Pains, Royal Romances, and Inglorious Royal Marriages. She also wrote an illustrated hardcover ?coffee table? book on a thousand years of British royalty commissioned by Sterling, the publishing arm of Barnes & Noble. She and her husband divide their time between the high-rises of Manhattan and the high elevation of Denver.

Question:What do Amy, the new mom;Meriel, the West-Indian housekeeper;Claude and Naomi, the alternative couple;Faith, the elegant widow;and Talia, the super-skinny ballerinahave in common?Answer:Abso-freakin'-lutely-nothing!Except that they all live lives of not-so-quiet desperation on the Upper West Side of New York City. What gets them through? Their unusual therapy sessions with supershrink Susan Lederer, held in the depths of the laundry room. Susan knows that all of life's problems eventually come out in the wash, but while the washers keep breaking down, she helps her female friends take control.But Susan's life has become an agitated mess. Her teenage daughter seems destined for a fast-food future; her son's adolescence hasn't quite hit yet . . . and her perfect husband is hiding something. Susan could use a really good shrink.Instead, her dirty linen exposed, she finds that it's her friends who rally 'round her, and by the final spin, she realizes that while it might not take a whole village, it does sometimes take a laundry room to get rid of the nastier wrinkles in life.Now if only she could find the formula for getting rid of that ring around the collar.