The Pocket Wife

Dana Catrell, the heroine of Crawford’s quirkily endearing debut, desperately needs to figure out what happened in those boozy, woozy hours between her argument with neighbor Celia Steinhauser and the discovery of the woman’s body—ideally before Paterson, N.J., Det. Jack Moss gets to the bottom of it. Though suburban homemaker Dana doesn’t believe herself capable of murder, she can’t be sure since she stopped taking meds for her bipolar disorder. Fortunately for Dana, Jack, who reminds her of her first love, is also somewhat off his game in the wake of his wife’s departure and the discovery that his estranged son, Kyle, seems to have been suspiciously close to Celia, Kyle’s GED teacher. As Dana continues to spiral out of control, her accelerating mania clouding her perceptions, Crawford manages for the most part to sidestep cliché and preserve her leading lady’s spunk, humor, and dignity. Although she’s less successful resolving the mystery, both Dana and Jack deserve an encore. [em]Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Mar.) [/em]