HAVING IT AND EATING IT

There's no place like limbo to encourage a decisive stroll down one path or another. London suburbanite Maggie Owen is thoroughly disenchanted with domestic life. She gave up a journalism job—granted, one she wasn't very good at—to raise two sons, toddler Fergus and baby Dan, with hopes of personal fulfillment. Instead, she is bored by playground mums and dreary household cares. After a chance meeting with Claire Masterson, former classmate and glamorous career woman who seems happily single, Maggie's self-confidence takes a nosedive. She worries that, at 35, she's aging prematurely and poorly. As if confirming her fears, Maggie's longtime partner, advertising executive Jake, starts working late hours and stops initiating sex. Maggie feels especially vulnerable because they never married. Could he be having an affair? Maggie's best friend, Mel, doesn't think so. She's a single mother and doctor whose wisdom and patience temper Maggie's worst moments of self-involvement. At another get-together, Claire confides to Maggie that she returned home from New York City because the married love-of-her-life was in London. Clever to a fault, Maggie assumes she knows what's going on with whom and considers defying her do-gooder, do-right role and exacting revenge. The personal dramas are only as tragic as Maggie's sharp humor will allow them to be—that is, not very—which makes British journalist Durrant's debut a fine mix of adroit plotting and page-turning comedic suspense. (June 3)

Forecast:Durrant's funny, intelligent and self-deprecating heroine is a worthy, more grown-up successor to the single Bridget Jones. Word of mouth will be a major factor in this title's popularity. Rights sold to Time Warner in the U.K. and List Verlag in Germany.