The Book Report: Washington Post critic Ron Charles (April 17)

By Washington Post book critic Ron Charles

The wind blows hot through the Santa Ana Canyon in Susan Straight's new novel, "Mecca." Straight's characters are people of color who serve as the backbone of Southern California's hospitality, agriculture and health care.

In one storyline, we meet a patrol officer who's haunted by a murder he committed 20 years ago to save a woman's life. In another story we follow a young Mexican woman who finds an abandoned baby in a fancy spa – and takes it.