Friends & Mothers

In the genre-jumbling debut from Australian Limerick, a group of Brisbane married mommies struggle to deal with troubled Evelyn's recent psychotic postpartum episode, during which her infant daughter, Amy, disappeared-lost, stolen or killed. Evelyn's four friends-overweight, ""poor cow"" earth mother Joanna; neurotic perfectionist Susan; angst-ridden artist Clare; and part-time nurse Wendy, poorer than the rest-meet to talk, search, deny and cope. The inevitable resentments, revelations and dark secrets bubble up, and all are transformed when the mystery is solved, neatly, three-fourths of the way in. Not easily distinguished first-person chapters from all five women mix willy-nilly with omniscient narration, and the ground the women cover is familiar.