Jennifer Weiner Goodnight Nobody

Goodnight Nobody

Jennifer Weiner

Atria, Sept 2005, $26.00, 372 pp.

ISBN 0743470117

Following a mugger stealing her stroller after letting her take her children out of them first, Kate Klein's husband is determined to relocate his family to safer environs. He moves them from New York City to the quaint upscale town of Upchurch, Connecticut where all the mothers behave perfectly like Stepford Wives. Kate doesn't fit in and the mothers who meet at the playground with their children make no effort to include her in their circle.

In that atmosphere, Kate is very surprised when Kitty Cavanaugh, the perfect wife and mother, invites her to her home to talk. When Kate arrives, she finds Kitty dead with a knife protruding from her shoulder blades. Maybe it is because she is lonely as her husband spends more time on the road drumming up business for his political consulting firm or because she was a reporter before she got married and had children, but Kate decides to investigate the homicide. That decision almost costs her the lives of her children, her best friend and her own.

The scandals and the dark and dangerous secrets that bubble just beneath the surface of Upchurch, a modern day Peyton Place are the reason Kate does not fit into her new world. Her troubles make GOODNIGHT NOBODY a fine who done it that also will appeal mainstream fiction readers. Jennifer Weiner is a brilliant storyteller who will appeal to those in the audience who like Danielle Steel and Barbara Delinsky.

Harriet Klausner