VALLEY OF THE MOMS by Hannah Selinger

 

Well, I hate Hamilton, and even I found this book to be a little heavy-handed. I enjoyed it and read it in 2 days, but man, it was humorless. Of course, it is the story of a young mother who may or may not have been murdered by the president of the PTA and her bereaved husband's quest to clear his name, but I like my murders with a few yucks. I'm not proud of it.

So Anna is kind of a self-righteous judgy bitch, but she is also a pretty good mom and a good wife. She lives in a town that is way too full of itself (just like the real Hamilton!) and the thing that made me buy this on the recommendation of Thalia from Paper and String (in Hamilton!!) is that there is a pivotal scene that takes place in the very health club that I call my beloved home away from home! Just to get this out of the way, they kind of nailed the vibe at Life Time. At first I was irritated that Selinger didn't smush the space from between those words. I have always typed it LifeTime  - show some freaking respect, Hannah! - but I just looked it up and I have been wrong all along! Anyhow, she has clearly been on the pool deck and has seen the horror show when the whistle blows for adult swim. 

The mystery was good. Her husband Denny has to deal with all kinds of complications after her death and when it turns out that it was foul play, he was - as everyone knows from Dateline - the prime suspect. So he goes about trying to find out what happened. And he is not overly stupid or careless about it, which is refreshing. 

The book starts with Emily being pissed that she can't sign her daughter up for "Ziti with your Sweetie" an embarrassingly named PTO fundraiser, and she finds out that there is a prestige level of PTO membership that you have to pay for and those folks got to register first. Well, her indignation turns to action and she decides to run for president of the PTO. If this were played for laughs, written by someone with Selinger's chops, it would be one of my reads of the year. Sadly, no. It just gets murdery. I read the occasional mystery and I don't mind them, but I like a little sauce. This was very well written, it just wasn't quirky enough. That being said, I thought the structure of alternating viewpoints between Anna and Denny to be well done. I loved that the ending was solid and while I was left with questions, they weren't the questions I thought I would be left with. And the cover is to DIE for!

This would be a GREAT book club book. Maybe not in Hamilton, though.