The Self-Made Widow

by Fabian Nicieza

From the cocreator of Deadpool and author of Suburban Dicks comes a diabolically funny murder mystery that features two unlikely sleuths investigating a murder that reveals the dark underbelly of suburban marriage.

    After mother of five and former FBI profiler Andie Stern solved a murder—and unraveled a decades-old conspiracy—in her New Jersey town, both her husband and the West Windsor police hoped that she would set aside crime-fighting and go back to carpools, changing diapers, and  lunches with her group of mom-friends, who she secretly calls The Cellulitists. Even so, Andie can’t help but get involved when the husband of Queen Bee Molly Goode is found dead. Though all signs point to natural causes, Andie begins to dig into the case and soon risks more than just the clique’s wrath, because what she discovers might hit shockingly close to home.
 
    Meanwhile, journalist Kenny Lee is enjoying a rehabilitated image after his success as Andie’s sidekick. But when an anonymous phone call tips him off that Molly Goode killed her husband, he’s soon drawn back into the thicket of suburban scandals, uncovering secrets, affairs, and a huge sum of money. Hellbent on justice and hoping not to kill each other in the process, Andie and Kenny dust off their suburban sleuthing caps once again.     
 

• ISBN10: 0593191293
• ISBN13: 9780593191293
• Publish Date: 21 June 2022
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Penguin Putnam Inc
• Imprint: G P Putnam's Sons
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780593191293

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

The Self-Made Widow is a very funny black comedy and the second Suburban Dicks mystery by Fabian Nicieza. Released 21st June 2022 by Penguin Random House on their G.P. Putnam's Sons imprint, it's 400 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

A lot of people whose jobs rely on the written word wrongly consider crime fiction low hanging fruit. It's not quite intellectual they say, it's often outrè, badly written (they say), well, this author would beg to differ. This is a well constructed mystery with a (huge) ensemble cast, and the plot arc, resolution, and denouement are well controlled, if frenetic. Sometimes the humor reminded me faintly of Ben Aaronovitch or Fowler's Bryant & May books with a subtle complexity reminiscent of the more cerebral and classic Americans like Stout and Woolrich. The mystery and frenetic pace weren't -quite- up to the same standards as the first book, but it was still a great example of humorous murder mystery.

The word that keeps popping up in my head is clever. This is a cleverly constructed puzzle. The main character is hysterically deadpan-funny but also really really clever. She's head-and-shoulders smarter than most of the rest of the people in the room, whatever room she's in at the moment, but she's not above making slyly sarcastic cracks which often fly above the heads of the people she's talking to. She teases apart the hidden motives and solution to the crimes and does it between shuttling her kids to soccer practice.

As the second book in the series, it works much better read in order, after the first book. This is especially since the events in the first book are referred back to quite heavily in this book and also because the two main characters, Andie (former FBI profiler and soccer mom) and Kenny (journalist) aren't as appealing and sympathetic in this outing. 

Four stars. One for fans of sarcastic humor in their mystery reads.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.