Murder Plays House (Mommy-Track Mystery Series)

Juliet Applebaum is a public defender turned stay-at-home mom's and a "highly likable sleuth" (Judith Kelman). Now in Murder Plays House, with a new arrival on the way, the Applebaum household is bursting at the seams. And Juliet is balancing clue-chasing and diaper-changing with a new task: house-hunting...

"In Waldman's fifth well-plotted Mommy-Track mystery (after 2003's Death Gets a Time-Out), PI and former public defender Juliet Applebaum, with another baby on the way, needs a new home almost as badly as she and her partner in her PI business, Al Hockey, need a new case. When in doubt, shop, so Juliet goes house hunting. One place she looks at really stands out — the one with the body in the bath. It seems a solution is at hand to both problems: if Juliet and Al can solve the murder, then Juliet and her family can buy the house. But who would kill a washed-up, bit-part actress? The deeper Juliet and Al dig, the more motives they find for the victim to have murdered someone herself. Juliet is a wonderful invention, warm, loving and sympathetic to those in need, but unintimidated by the L.A. entertainment industry she must enter to search for clues. An underlying theme concerns the extraordinary lengths to which people go to look beautiful, and the great weight put on physical appearance in determining success in Hollywood. The suspense builds slowly — it takes almost the full length of the book before a motive for the vicious killing becomes clear — but what a motive, what a resolution and how clever of Juliet to figure everything out. Agent, Mary Evans. (July 6)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Juliet Applebaum is a public defender turned stay-at-home mom and a "highly likable sleuth" (Judith Kelman). Now with a new arrival on the way, she is balancing clue-chasing and diaper-changing with a new task: house-hunting.

Ayelet Waldman is a Harvard Law School graduate and former public defender who is now a stay-at-home mom. She currently lives with her writer-husband Michael Chabon and their three children.