[The Margie Peterson Mysteries 01] • Mother's Day Out

Life is pretty typical for stay-at-home mom Margie Peterson. She's got a peanut-butter-covered wardrobe, an attorney husband who's always at the office, and a mother-in-law who keeps slipping her books like "Sex Secrets of Happy Wives." Then she lands a part-time job at a seedy P.I. firm — and her humdrum suburban life is turned upside-down.

By the end of her first day, Margie's totaled her minivan, submitted a picture of a naked man in Saran Wrap to the school newsletter, and accidentally participated in a drag queen contest. When she finds a dead transvestite in the “Princesses’” room of a gay bar, she decides it may be time to hang up her hat and start planning Tupperware parties. Then she picks up the drag queen’s phone… and discovers the last call the dead man made was to Margie’s own house.

"The minivan and her daughter's fry phone were the first casualties when Margie Peterson took on a part-time job for Peachtree Investigations. In Mother’s Day Out, Karen MacInerney has delivered a laugh-out-loud, wacky and hysterical romp featuring an ordinary car-pool mom who finds herself walking on the wild side, coming face-to-face with plastic-wrapped cheaters, a murdered transvestite, and her own husband’s secrets."

— Sue Ann Jaffarian, author of the Odelia Grey and Granny Apples mysteries