A Mothered Up P.I.

I have decided that I watch too much crap tv and so have been working my way down the big old pile of books to be read on my nightstand.  I just finished Ayelet Waldam's Nursery Crimes which I described here. 

Now as I have mentioned before, I have never been a huge fan of the mystery/suspense genre.  I always figure out whodunnit way in advance and then that spoils the fun.  (Just like I thought that Bruce Willis's character was dead all the way through the the Sixth Sense because the only person who seemed to talk to him was the creepy "I see dead people" kid.  So then at the end, everyone was "Oh my god, what a surprise!" and I was all "What, what, did I miss something major??" because I could not understand what the big plot twist was supposed to be.  Too many years of overanalyzing post-modern fiction, I suspect.)

But in spite of mystery being one of my least favourite genres, I liked this book a lot because lead character Juliet Applebaum is such a real mother.  She is ambivalent about her decision to quit a job she liked and was good at to stay home.  She feels "Mothered Up" most of the time.  She used to thrive as a Public Defence Lawyer and yet now cannot seem to figure out how to get her child into pre-school.  And she finds the day to day routine of motherhood so grinding that she often finds herself resenting her three year old daughter (and then, of course, suffering from tremendous guilt).

So she takes up some amateur detective work to keep her Harvard Law School trained mind engaged during nap-time.  And even though she questions taking her three year old daughter with her to do covert surveillance work or having her daughter watch Sesame Street yet again so she can do some investigative work over the phone, she finds that she is a far happier, more patient and, in fact, better mother when she finds an outlet for all of her un-momly skills and energies.

This is a great, quick, fun read that can be digested in ten minute chunks before you crash into bed at the end of the day.  But beyond the breeziness of the plot is an underlying revelation of motherhood's many complexities.  Fun, fast-paced and just a teeny bit political -- we likey.   

Comments

[Mieke]

I liked the book a lot too, but was VERY disappointed with the rest of her books. The characters are great but her mysteries are TOO stupid.