Book excerpt: Smart, witty mystery from the author of Bad Mother and Love and Treasure...“Juliet Applebaum is smart, fearless, and completely candid about life as a full-time mom with a penchant for part-time detective work.”—Sue Grafton Ever since her four-month-old son was born, Juliet hasn’t slept for more than fifteen minutes at a stretch. (Has she given birth to some sort of mutant vampire? She’s beginning to wonder.) It’s been ages since she took her three-year-old daughter to the park. (Just one more reason why she’s a front-runner for the “Worst Mother of the Year” award.) Her workaholic husband is spending way too much time with his perky, oh-so-pretty producing partner. (Juliet’s sure her own post-pregnancy pounds are at least partly to blame.) She’s started answering the door topless. (Don’t even ask.) And now her son’s babysitter—a beautiful young Chasidic woman—has vanished. Juliet can’t help wondering if Fraydle was fleeing something even scarier than her screaming, squalling charge. Like her upcoming arranged marriage, maybe? It’s certainly possible. Especially since Juliet saw her furtively chatting with a non-Chasidic man shortly before she disappeared. Or perhaps something much more sinister has occurred. Why else would Fraydle’s family be so reluctant to call in the police? To find out the truth, Juliet, with her over-tired kids in tow, will have to travel from her havoc-filled home in Los Angeles to a Chasidic encalve in Brooklyn. In search of answers. In pursuit of justice. And in desperate need of a big, long nap… Ayelet Waldman is the author of Love and Other Impossible Pursuits and other acclaimed works of both fiction and nonfiction, as well as the Mommy-Track Mysteries, including such titles as Nursery Crimes and A Playdate with Death.