Chick Lit star Weiner's fourth novel, following In Her Shoes
(2002), which has been adapted as a major motion picture
starring Cameron Diaz, follows bored, upper-middle class,
suburbanite mother of three Kate Klein as she becomes entangled
in a local murder case. Kate
Klein is a feisty, charmingly insecure Connecticut housewife who
trades in a life of late-night karaoke sing-a-longs and West
Village brunches with her best friend Janie for a world of
mini-vans and Mommy and Me Pilates classes. Life in Upchurch,
Connecticut, heats up when Kate discovers picture-perfect wife
and mother Kitty Cavanaugh dead on the pickled maple hardwood
floor of her recently remodelled kitchen. A former chronicler of
celebrity gossip, Kate takes it upon herself to solve the
mystery of Kitty's murder and the disappearance of Lexi Hagen-Holdt,
another Upchurch supermom. Along the way, the mysteries and
disappointments in Kate's personal life begin to unravel,
including her marriage to the kind-yet-uptight Ben, and her
unresolved crush on Evan McKenna, a former neighbour with whom a
one-night tryst ended in disaster. Thrown in for comic relief,
and perhaps to show the depth of Weiner's talents as a writer,
are Kate's twin boys and adorably sophisticated 5-year old
daughter Sophie ("Sophie was sitting on the toilet, applying
lipstick and waiting her turn...")
Goodnight Nobody is
chock full of plot twists and turns.
Weiner's readers will root for Kate, whose humor and warmth amidst her
struggles to transcend the roles of mom and wife make her a
loveable, fully realized character.