New Releases by Ayelet Waldman

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.

Smart, witty mystery from the author of Bad Mother and Love and Treasure...“Juliet Applebaum is smart, fearless, and completely candid about life as a full-time mom with a penchant for part-time detective work.”—Sue Grafton Ever since her four-month-old son was born, Juliet hasn’t slept for more than fifteen minutes at a stretch. (Has she given birth to some sort of mutant vampire? She’s beginning to wonder.) It’s been ages since she took her three-year-old daughter to the park. (Just one more reason why she’s a front-runner for the “Worst Mother of the Year” award.) Her workaholic husband is spending way too much time with his perky, oh-so-pretty producing partner. (Juliet’s sure her own post-pregnancy pounds are at least partly to blame.) She’s started answering the door topless. (Don’t even ask.) And now her son’s babysitter—a beautiful young Chasidic woman—has vanished. Juliet can’t help wondering if Fraydle was fleeing something even scarier than her screaming, squalling charge. Like her upcoming arranged marriage, maybe? It’s certainly possible. Especially since Juliet saw her furtively chatting with a non-Chasidic man shortly before she disappeared. Or perhaps something much more sinister has occurred. Why else would Fraydle’s family be so reluctant to call in the police? To find out the truth, Juliet, with her over-tired kids in tow, will have to travel from her havoc-filled home in Los Angeles to a Chasidic encalve in Brooklyn. In search of answers. In pursuit of justice. And in desperate need of a big, long nap… Ayelet Waldman is the author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and other acclaimed works of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as the Mommy-Track Mysteries, including such titles as Nursery Crimes and A Playdate with Death.

“Smart sleuthing…the way [Juliet] maintains her sense of humor while juggling detective chores and baby duty is awesome.”—The New York Times A public defender turned Stay-at-home mom, Juliet Applebaum is bored with playdates and trips to the park—so near the end of her second pregnancy, she gets off the mommy track to track down a murderer…. Juliet isn’t too surprised when her feisty, tantrum-throwing two-year-old daughter doesn’t get into Hollywood’s premier preschool—but she’s shocked and suspicious when the school’s principal is killed in a hit-and-run accident. Against the advice of her screenwriter husband, and with her rambunctious toddler in tow, Juliet heads to the local playground to dig up some dirt on a disgruntled studio executive whose daughter wasn’t offered a place in the school. But she has some surprising new suspects to consider when her investigation takes her into a seedy on-line newsgroup—and the most dangerous parts of the human heart…. “[Juliet is] a lot like Elizabeth Peters’s warm and humorous Amelia Peabody—a brassy, funny, quick-witted protagonist.”—The Houston Chronicle