A Mystery of a Different Sort

Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple (Little, Brown trade paperback, 2 April 2013).

Reviewed by Marlyn Beebe.

This novel is not marketed as a mystery story, but rather as

an ingenious and unabashedly entertaining novel about a family coming to terms with who they are.  It is also a riotous satire of privilege and an unsentimental but powerful story of a daughter's unflinching love for her imperfect mother. (From the book jacket.)

The "Bernadette" of the title is a Seattle housewife whose husband, Elgin, works at Microsoft and whose teen-aged daughter Bee goes to a private school.   Bernadette and Elgin, both very intelligent with strong personalities, have a mostly good relationship. Bee, also very smart and self-assured, adores her mother, and thinks of her as her best friend.

Bernadette hates Seattle, in fact she's certain she's allergic to it. The other parents at the Galer Street school, which Bee attends, think Bernadette is not only a snob but a horrible mother, mostly because the only way she helps out is by donating money rather than doing any physical volunteer work.

Bernadette and Elgin have promised their daughter  a trip to wherever she wishes as a reward for getting perfect grades throughout middle school, and Bee chooses Antarctica.   Bernadette decides that she can't handle complicated details of planning this trip on her own, so she hires a "virtual assistant" from a company in India.  She leaves everything in the hands of their representative, Manjula Kapoor, giving her carte blanche to make reservations and order supplies for the trip.

I HAVE ATTEMPTED NOT TO GIVE AWAY ANY DETAILS THAT ARE NOT ALREADY ON THE BOOK JACKET OR OTHER PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS.  
IF YOU ARE CONCERNED ABOUT SPOILERS, PLEASE READ NO FURTHER.

During the weeks leading up to the trip, which is scheduled for Christmas vacation, the family's next door neighbor, whose son also attends Galer Street, decides to have a fund-raising event at her home, and, determined that Bernadette must assist, begins to harass her.

At the same time, Elgin has a major project due at work, and throws himself into it completely.  Between seeing little of her husband, and being hounded by her crazy neighbor,  Bernadette becomes overwhelmed by the stress, and just before the planned trip to Antarctica, she disappears. 

Of course, herein lies the mystery.  What happened to Bee's mother?  How could Elgin's wife have vanished without a trace?   The efforts of Bernadette's family to find her are amazing, and heartwarming.  This book is, as the cover blurb proclaimed, ingenious, no matter how it's classified.



 FTC Full Disclosure:  I borrowed the hardcover edition of this book from my local library.

Investigating Mothers

I know it's a little bit late for Mother's Day, but my brother and his wife had a baby last week, which made me think of all the mysteries there are out there featuring mothers with new babies.  Following is a list of some of my favorites.  Please feel free to add yours in the comments.

Orgain, Diana. The Maternal Instincts Mysteries:  Bundle of Trouble, Motherhood is Murder and Formula   for Murder.

 The series begins with protagonist Kate Connolly on maternity leave with her newborn daughter Laurie.  She can't imagine returning to work after six weeks, but she and her husband, Jim, really need two incomes in the expensive city of San Francisco.  When her mother-in-law hires a PI to find Jim's brother, Kate is decides to help him, and realizes that investigating is the ideal occupation for a mother.

Each of the three books in the series is juxtaposed with a month in Laurie's development.  Kate is a charming and determined heroine, who truly believes that both she and her daughter will suffer if she has to return to her office job.



Page, Katherine Hall.  The Faith Fairchild Mysteries.

There are twenty books in Hall's delightful series about caterer Faith Fairchild, beginning with The Body in the Belfry (1990), so I'm not going to list all the titles.  (You can find all the titles if you click on the author's name, above.)  Faith is married to Tom, an Episcopal minister who accepts a position in the village of Aleford, Massachusetts.  They have a five-month-old named Benjamin;  and Faith, who gave up a growing New York catering business when they moved, is a bit bored by small-town life until she finds a body, stabbed with a kitchen knife, in the church's belfry.

Faith has trouble settling into the small community, as she just doesn't fit into the villagers' idea of what a minister's wife should be.  Her discovery of a  young woman's body, stabbed with a kitchen knife, in the church's belfry does not aid this perception, especially when the bored Faith, who has a very well-developed sense of curiosity, decides to find out what happened.

By the end of book three, The Body in the Bouillon, Faith is making arrangements to take over a local catering company, and also discovers that she's expecting.  Daughter Amy first appears in book five, The Body in the Cast.



Waldman, Ayelet.  The Mommy-Track Mysteries:  Nursery Crimes, The Big Nap, A Playdate With Death, Death Gets a Time-Out, Murder Plays House, The Cradle Robbers and Bye-Bye, Black Sheep.

When we meet Juliet Applebaum, the former public defender is a  full-time mom and pregnant with her second child.  Her husband, Peter, sold a screenplay for an outrageous amount of money, so she doesn't need to go back to work.  But even though trying to get two-year-old Ruby into the best Hollywood preschool is more cutthroat than the California justice system, Juliet is bored.  So, when the  principal is killed in what-may-not-have-been an auto accident, she decides to find out what really happened.

During the course of the series, Juliet has another child, the family moves into a bigger house, and she hangs out a shingle as a private investigator with former cop Al Hockey.  Juliet is a wonderful character who struggles with her weight, and tries to stay sane while being a stay-at-home mom.