BIG LITTLE LIES (Liane Moriarty)

Moriarty's newest novel has gotten a lot of press, but I was a bit worried.  I love her books, but her last, The Husband's Secret, wasn't my favorite.  My fears were unfounded, though.  Moriarty has hit a home run with this one!  It's sort of a reverse mystery.  We know from the outset that someone has been murdered at the school's annual trivia night, but we don't know who, how, or why. Comments from "witnesses" and police are interspersed throughout the chapters, heightening both the humor and the suspense factor.

Single mother Jane moves to the close-knit Piriwee Peninsula community and enrolls her son, Ziggy, in the local kindergarten.  Jane is a loner, withdrawn and quiet, and she volunteers no information about the identity of Ziggy's father.  On kindergarten orientation day she meets stylish Madeline, mother of Chloe,  the type of  hyper-organized, energetic mother that both fascinates and frightens us. Maddie is infuriated and saddened that her teenage daughter has become close to ex-husband Nick, who abandoned her and their newborn daughter years ago, Now Nick and his wife Bonnie have a daughter in the same class as Maddie's younger daughter, Chloe. Completing the trio of mother-characters is strikingly beautiful Celeste, pampered wife of incredibly wealthy and impossibly handsome Perry, with whom she has rambunctious twin boys.  Celeste also has some secrets.

Moriarty is a wonderful writer, and this novel is unique.  With each chapter we learn more and wonder more about the death, which is referenced copiously throughout the novel.  The social network at the school is fascinating, with social climber. parents who bully, and more intrigue than anyone would ever expect from a class of kindergarten parents.  Each of the characters is interesting, some lovable and others entirely hateful.  Moriarty deftly explores the consequences of "big little lies."  You won't want to put it down!