Rating: 
Summary: Fun start to a new series
Review: Juliet Applebaum is at loose ends in her life. After her daughter Ruby was born, she decided to put her career as a public defender on hold because she wasn't giving enough to either her career or her family. Yet she's restless spending all her time at home with her two year old daughter.Trying to get Ruby into the best nursery school in Los Angeles doesn't go well. But that night the founder, Abigail Hathaway, is run down by a car. Juliet is positive she knows who the killer is. But when she starts investigating, she finds that it might not be as simple a case as she thought. Does she still remember enough of her training to successfully build a case against the killer? I enjoyed this debut novel. Juliet is a likable heroine who struggles with her desire to do what's best for her daughter and soon to be born son and the desire to continue a job she loves. Occasionally, she borders on whining, but she also knows she's made the right choice for now. The plotting was good, although I felt Juliet was a little dumber then need be at the end. Still, I only saw the ending coming a few pages before she did. I'm definitely going to continue to check in on this family and see where they go from here. Ayelet Waldman has the potential for a great series with these characters.
Rating: 
Summary: A 21st Century Sleuth
Review: Juliet Applebaum, the nutty protaganist, is a woman in need of some prozac. Problem is, she's also seriously pregnant and that's no time to start medicating. She does the next best thing: hits the streets and solves a murder. Eventually, at least. In the 200 breezy pages before she finds her killer, Juliet runs madly around LA, assaults mailboxes, and generally acts like the detective she's not. Its fast and funny, and Waldman's character feels remarkably - almost uncomfortably - honest.
Rating:
Summary: Working mothers are going to lovr this keeper
Review: Juliet is a Harvard graduate, who works as a yuppie attorney in a prestigious law firm when she meets her soon-to-be husband, a wannabe script writer working in a video store. Juliet fully expected to support him for several years, but a studio picked up one of his "shock-schlock" scripts. The pair moves to Hollywood where Peter happily produces more of the same that his agent easily sells for big bucks. This allows Juliet to live her dream as a public defender. By the time their daughter Ruby was two Juliet becomes pregnant again. Abigail, head of Hollywood,s premier preschool, interviews Juliet and Peter, but ultimately refuses to allow Ruby to attend. Though disappointed by the rejection, neither parent is hostile. However, studio owner Mr. LeCrone reacts differently when his child is denied admission. Only Peter stopped him from hitting Abigail Hathaway. That night Abigail dies in a car crash that Juliet believes is murder. She begins to do some investigating and soon turns up some interesting information that implicates several people who wants the victim dead. The juxtaposition of Juliet playing with her toddler one-minute and the next moment turning into a sleuth is believable, hilarious, and sets the tone for this tale. Juliet is a superb private investigator who struggles more with diapers than finding clues. The interactions between the spouses and with their child provide a softening homey feel that will appeal to readers who enjoy a well-written cozy. If NURSURY CRIMES is any indication of what to expect from Ayelet Waldman, this series will have a quality, long life expectancy. Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: A 'mommy-track 'mystery? Oh, please!
Review: Juliet, a Harvard Law School graduate and former corporate
attorney, leaves professional life for the imagined pleasures
of being a stay-at-home mother.
She quickly discovers that it is a full-time, demanding
and unpaid job. Not only does she stink at it, but she's bored
(especially by playing CANDYLAND).
But she finds an interesting pastime as an private sleuth,
balancing investigations with finding good daycare. About 30%
of the novel is devoted to the trials of child-rearing.
Rating:
Summary: The "Mommy Track" mysteries
Review: Juliet, a Harvard Law School graduate and former corporate
attorney, leaves professional life for the imagined pleasures
of being a stay-at-home mother.
She quickly discovers that it is a full-time, demanding
and unpaid job. Not only does she stink at it, but she's bored
(especially by playing CANDYLAND).
But she finds an interesting pastime as an private sleuth,
balancing investigations with finding good daycare. About 30%
of the novel is devoted to the trials of child-rearing.
Rating:
Summary: Irma Bombeck Meet Jessica Fletcher
Review: Nursery Crimes is a cute, fast read. Juliet is likeable and funny. If I had one criticism, it would that the author doesn't appear to trust her reader; the punchline or reference is always right there in print. I might have finished each paragraph or joke just one sentence earlier and trusted that the reader was smart enough to make the appropriate inference. Perhaps that's the way people want their fiction these days, I don't know. It's just that she clearly writes better than a John Grisham, so why coddle the reader like he does. Perhaps if she writes another mystery, she will leave us hanging from time to time. Having said all that, I enjoyed the book (it's the old school teacher in me); the plot was cute, the Los Angeles references were fun, and the characters allowed one to conjure up terrific graphic images. I see Holly Hunter as Juliet in the made-for-television movie! Great as a vacation read or when you want something light.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive First Book
Review: She may not win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction like her husband did, but Ayelet Waldman is a good writer, and this book is an impressive first mystery novel. Not only does Waldman pace her story well, but she has a sense of humor that made this book immensely enjoyable despite the fact I figured out "whodunnit" fairly early on. I search for mystery writers who are able to rise above the average, and with Waldman, I have found an author whose next book -- "The Big Nap" -- I actually plan to read (as soon as I can get my hands on it). I highly recommend this to mystery fans. Also: fans of Waldman's acclaimed husband, Michael Chabon, may be interested in Peter, husband of the main character, who at least has in common with Chabon his interest in comic books. In one scene, Peter amusingly takes his 2-year-old daughter on a "comic book crawl."
Rating:
Summary: ending too obvious
Review: Sorry,Juliet is someone who I couldn't identify with in the least.She seems like a whiner,and not up to motherhood. Big deal she's an attorney,how many times do we have to hear about it. Big deal her husband makes a ton in the movie business.And yet after having her son in the hospital,she's looking for a nurse to change his diaper.Plus I felt the interracial college relationship was a turn off too.... I like to read about characters who I would like to be friends with. Not some kind of upper class ninny who seems to have nothing better to do than complain she's a stay at home Mom.
Rating:
Summary: Cheap mind candy... bleah
Review: The "Mommy-Track" mysteries are less than lightweight entertainment. Like butter-flavored popcorn and orange soda at the movie theater, they seem to taste good going down, but they inevitably lead to a stomachache. The writing is uninspired and downright sloppy in places, and Juliet Applebaum is just not that likeable. I'm guessing that Waldman expects to find a niche with female readers who share some of her protagonist's ambivalence about stay-at-home-motherhood. But when the public defender turned reluctant stay-at-home mom turned amateur sleuth settled her preschool daughter in front of PBS for the umpteenth time while she called former colleagues, surfed the net, and visited convicts (all in the name of solving the murder of a woman she had met exactly once!), Waldman lost me. In Nursery Crimes, Juliet's daughter doesn't make the cut in the admissions game at a tony preschool (which is not surprising; Ruby's steady diet of television and carbs has made her more than a little difficult to manage). But when the preschool's director falls victim to an apparent hit-and-run accident, Juliet dons her professional cap to investigate what she feels is a murder. Call me crazy, but I think it's helpful for amateur sleuths to have a plausible reason to tackle a case than, "Oh, Peter, I don't know why I'm crying. I didn't even like her." I love a little mind candy now and then, just love it. But this wasn't M&Ms, folks. It was the stuff that the neighbors you don't like give out on Halloween - cheap, stale, hardly worth opening. Bleah.
Rating:
Summary: Promising!
Review: This a great concept for a mystery/detective series. The characters are set with the Juliet, a stay at home Mom, who gave up her career to be with a headstrong two and one-half year old named Ruby, an unflappable husband, and a child soon to be born. Nursery Crimes was witty and breezy at the start and a terrific page-turner at the end. Waldman did a great job with twists and turns that made sense and did not seem contrived. I did figure out who did it a couple of chapters ahead of Juliet, but it's nice to feel smart. My reason for only four stars is that Nursery Crimes did slump in the middle and I feared that a promising beginning would be for naught. However the ending more than made up for that. Besides, how many mysteries have a great start and middle only to fizzle at the end? Nursery Crimes was a nice change from the empty feeling that comes from that path. Having gone through the early stage parenthood myself I find myself identifying Juliet's parenthood trials even though I am a mere man. My child is now a teenager and I hope this series gets that far so I can see how Juliet handles a fourteen year old Ruby. Meanwhile I find myself wondering what future evils will lurk in places such as Chuckey Cheese, the PTA, and Brownies.
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