The Deep End

The Deep End is a murder mystery set in 1974. a country club wife in Kansas City, Missouri. She's married to a banker and they are comfortably upper class. The only problem is her husband is unfaithful- with a woman Ellison knows from the country club. Ellison and her husband Henry have chosen to stay married for their daughter's sake, at least until she's in college. But everything changes one morning when Ellison goes for her usual swim at the club- and finds her husband's mistress in the pool, dead.

Madeline had affairs with many men, so she had no shortage of enemies. Henry is also a suspect, especially after he disappears the night of the murder. Ellison is shocked at this turn of events, and heartbroken that her daughter has to go through having both parents as murder suspects, starts digging a little deeper and finds some unsettling things. She knew her husband was into kinky sex, but finds out that his tastes went a little farther than she knew- and that he and Madeline were regulars at a club downtown. Ellison and Madeline'shusband Roger go there, because Roger wants answers- and Ellison finds about more about her husband's affairs than she wanted to know.

Meanwhile Ellison has to deal with her mother, who is sort of the queen bee of the country club set, connecting her with an attractive lawyer when she announces her decision to divorce Henry. And the detective investigating the case seems to take a more than professional interest in her as time goes on, though he tries not to let his personal feelings interfere with the investigation. When her house is broken into and more murders occur, things get verydangerous. And she finds out that Henry was blackmailing people at the country club- including someone very close to her.

This was a great story with a dry humor to the narration that I loved. It's told from Ellison's perspective and she's a riot, with her wry observations and witty asides. This book grabbed me from the first page- no slow build up here. I couldn't stop reading , it was one of those just one more page reads. THe mom is a hoot, as are her country club friends. Ellison discovers that her husband was kinkier than she thought- but the author doesn't overdo it. And there's a lot of humor throughout- it seemed like practically every page I was smiling or laughing at something. A very fun read, and was over way too soon.