Weiner makes even murder funny in ‘Goodnight’

Kate Klein has reason to be frazzled: She’s caring for her 3-year-old twin sons and 4-year-old daughter while trying to keep up with the too-perfect mommies of her too-perfect Connecticut town.

But when one of those mommies gets a knife in the back, Kate, a former New York celebrity journalist, seizes the murder as an opportunity to flex her investigative muscles – three days a week, between 8:30 and 11:45 a.m., when the kids are in school.

Jennifer Weiner’s lively new novel is part mom-lit and part mystery, hopping from playground to police station to Chuck E. Cheese’s in a frenzy that occasionally proves jarring.

Weiner’s other novels (“Good in Bed,” “In Her Shoes,” “Little Earthquakes”) explored more traditional topics: humiliating breakups, family squabbles and new motherhood. “Goodnight Nobody” is too busy adhering to the demands of the crime novel formula to ring as true or touch as deeply as the earlier books, especially the standout “Little Earthquakes.”

“Goodnight Nobody” opens as Kate discovers the body of Kitty Cavanaugh, a glossy, tragic character straight out of “Desperate Housewives.” Kitty, it turns out, was involved in several curious undertakings, and a little digging reveals that just about everyone in town is worthy of suspicion.

Kate needs the investigation to help her shake off the doldrums. She’s befuddled by her life – by the man she married, the town she lives in, the neighborhood moms, three kids under the age of 5.

“How had this happened?” she wonders. “I couldn’t explain it. Especially not the part about getting pregnant with the boys when Sophie was just seven weeks old, courtesy of an act of intercourse I can barely remember and can’t imagine I’d condoned.”

Another big regret for Kate is that she didn’t end up with the man for whom she has carried a torch the last seven years. In the sort of coincidence that real life rarely provides, the old flame turns out to be linked to the murder victim.

The mystery unfolds with the expected wrinkles and shocking discoveries, though Kate’s sometimes-silly investigative tactics require a suspension of disbelief. But plot has never been the key to Weiner’s success. Her sharp wit, crisp writing and wry observations – all of which are abundant in “Goodnight Nobody” – propel her onto best-seller lists.

As long as she stays funny, clever and entertaining, she can get away with writing about any topic – even murder.