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, shes back in top formtaming tantrums, battling boredom, chasing cluesNo one ever said motherhood was a walk in the park, but Juliet Applebaum is doing her best. Shes been showing up (more or less) on time to pick up her daughter from preschool. Shes trying (in vain) to discourage her two-and-a-half-year-old sons interest in firearms. And in between planning playdates and playing dress up, shes even managed to fit in some much-needed kid-free time, working out with a personal trainer at the local health club. Its going well. Shes losing weight. Shes even happyuntil her trainer commits suicide.A charming, cheerful aspiring actor, Bobby Katz seemed to have it alland Juliet just cant believe he died at his own hand. She suspects that theres a much more sinister explanationand that it may lie with Bobbys 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 forwho 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 secretsuntil, at last, she runs into the truthAyelet 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.