Murder Plays House

Book excerpt: Juliet Applebaum is a public defender turned stay-at-home mom—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. Juliet loves her kids. She loves their dirty little faces and skinned knees. She loves the ridiculous and amazing things they say. But when three-and-a-half year old Isaac evicts her husband and her from their own bed one night, love is the last thing on her mind. Juliet now recognizes the need for a few changes…starting with a bigger house. And when the new baby arrives, they’ll welcome the extra space. But if there’s ever a bad time to search for a new house in L.A., it’s now. In a buyer-unfriendly real estate market, one practically has to kill to find an affordable home. No wonder Juliet is prepared to overlook a corpse on the grounds of her would-be dream house. To salve her conscience—and get her foot literally in the front door—she vows to find the killer of the homeowner’s sister. The investigation leads her from the madness of house-hunting into a world of washed-up actors and canceled TV shows, a world more depraved than she could ever have imagined. “Smoothly paced and smartly told.”—The New York Times Book Review “Think Chinatown, but with strollers and morning sickness.”—Long Island Press