A group of expectant mothers in a nice Brooklyn neighborhood become acquainted through a website called 'The Village', a forum that provides tips for pregnant women and new moms.
The future moms - who call themselves the 'May Mothers' because all their due dates are in May - communicate via email and have biweekly meetings in a park. There they sit under a tree, chit chat, and share snacks.
Some of the gals also do other things together, like working out, going for walks, attending birthing classes, etc.
After the May Mothers give birth, they start to bring their infants to the meetings, and talk about the exhaustion of new motherhood, breast feeding, maternity leave, jobs, partners, finances, and so on.
The most active members of the group are:
🞇 Francie - a freelance photographer married to a struggling architect. The couple has financial troubles.
🞇 Colette - an aspiring novelist who's ghostwriting a memoir for the mayor. Her partner is a successful writer.
🞇 Nell - a British IT expert who works for a magazine publisher. Nell's husband disapproves of the undocumented nanny she hired, fearing they'll get into trouble.
🞇 Scarlet - a stay-at-home mom married to a successful physician. They're moving to the suburbs
🞇 Winnie - a single mom who's more private than the other women.
🞇 Token - the only man in the group, a stay-at-home dad. The women assume he's gay.
Several of the group members decide to have a night out, away from the babies, and arrange to meet at a neighborhood bar called the Jolly Llama. Single mom Winnie is reluctant to leave her 2-month-old son Midas with a babysitter, but Nell INSISTS Winnie come out, and even provides the sitter. The ladies dance and drink at the Jolly Llama, some of them a bit too much.
The night out has tragic consequences, because Winnie's babysitter falls asleep and baby Midas goes missing. Police detectives question the babysitter, interview the moms who were at the Jolly Llama, follow up on tips from the public, and so on.
The media also goes into high gear, and the personal lives of the moms are exposed, along with secrets they've been hiding.
The public offers its two cents as well, castigating the moms for going out drinking; calling them bad mothers; saying Midas (if found) shouldn't be returned to his mother; and so on.
The cops don't make headway finding Midas, and then a murder occurs. The public berates the authorities, saying the police and mayor are incompetent. Several of the May Mothers, especially Francie, Collette, and Nell, agree the police are bungling the case, and determine to find baby Midas themselves.
The ladies have a bit of an inside track because Collette - who's ghostwriting the mayor's memoir - is able to peek at police files in the mayor's office, and Nell - the IT expert - can hack into computer files. As for Francie, she goes to great (and icky) lengths to investigate men she considers suspects.
The novel is interspersed with mothering tips from 'The Village' as well as passages from the person who took Midas.
I like the novel, which has the requisite misdirection and surprises. My major criticism would be the perp's long drawn explanation after the climax, explaining exactly what was done and why. This is too much 'telling' and not enough 'showing.'
The book is slated to become a movie, with Kerry Washington in a lead role.
Rating: 3.5 stars
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