Other people's houses

Frances Bloom has driven the neighborhood carpool for years, and the job gives her a view into other families' homes that she never asked for. She knows her cousin is keeping a wish for another baby from her spouse. She knows Bill Horton's wife is missing, with no clear explanation. Then she walks in on Anne Porter with a man who is not Anne's husband.

Frances resolves to stay out of it and mind her own business. That plan falls apart a couple of days later, when Anne's husband throws her out of the house.

The affair sends consequences through all four carpool families, and Frances is pulled into a moral tangle where one wrong move could damage a marriage, or save one. She has to decide how much of what she knows to act on, and who she owes it to.

This is a contemporary novel about suburban family life, told in the third person with a comic tone and a more serious undercurrent. The ensemble of neighbors keeps the focus on secrets, loyalties and the small, private hopes people hide from the people closest to them. Expect a humorous, character-led read built around a carpool lane and the households it connects.