"For Kate Klein, a semi-accidental mother of three, suburbia has
been full of unpleasant surprises. Her once-loving husband is hardly
ever home. The supermommies on the playground routinely snub her. Her
days are spent carpooling and enduring endless games of Candy Land, and
at night, most of her orgasms are of the do-it-yourself variety.
When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery
is the most exciting thing to happen in Upchurch, Connecticut, since her
neighbors broke ground for a guesthouse and cracked their septic tank.
Even though the local police chief warns her that crime-fighting's a job
best left to the professionals, Kate launches an unofficial
investigation—from 8:45 to 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays,
when her kids are in nursery school.
As Kate is drawn deeper
into the murdered woman's past, she begins to uncover the secrets and
lies behind Upchurch's picket-fence facade—and considers the choices
and compromises all modern women make as they navigate between marriage
and independence, small towns and big cities, being a mother and having a
life of one's own."