A Playdate With Death

Smart, witty mystery from the author of Bad Mother and Love and Treasure. . .

Public defender turned stay-at-home mom Juliet Applebaum is a "smart and fearless” (Sue Grafton) sleuth whose previous adventures have been praised as "compelling” (Publishers Weekly) and "entertaining” (Booklist). In A Playdate with Death, she's back in top form taming tantrums, battling boredom, chasing clues. . .

No one ever said motherhood was a walk in the park, but Juliet Applebaum is doing her best. She's been showing up (more or less) on time to pick up her daughter from preschool. She's trying (in vain) to discourage her two-and-a-half-year-old son's interest in firearms. And in between planning playdates and playing dress up, she's even managed to fit in some much-needed kid-free time, working out with a personal trainer at the local health club. It's going well. She's losing weight. She's even happy until her trainer commits suicide.

A charming, cheerful aspiring actor, Bobby Katz seemed to have it all and Juliet just can't believe he died at his own hand. She suspects that there's a much more sinister explanation and that it may lie with Bobby's parents, who never told him he was adopted. Or with his grieving fiancee, a recovering addict who just fell off the wagon. Or with his birth mother, a woman he had recently started to look for who had gone to great lengths to ensure that she would never be found. Always up for a task that will get her out of the house, Juliet keeps running down secrets until, at last, she runs into the truth. . .

Ayelet Waldman is the author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, Red Hook Road, Daughter's Keeper, and other acclaimed works, as well as the Mommy-Track Mysteries, including such titles as The Big Nap and Death Gets a Time-Out.