Behind White Picket Fences by Christine Gunderson

Fusing page-turning suspense with keenly observed humor, this homage to female friendship explores the hamster wheel of modern motherhood, and the consequences for jumping off.

Kiersten Cleaver feels like she’s flunking Motherhood 101. Exhausted by travel sports, homework, and her son’s dyslexia, she joins forces with her neighbors, Rosamund and Piper, to drop out of the scholastic rat race for one year.

Together, they start the Beaverbrook Academy for Inquiring Minds in Kiersten’s kitchen, embarking on a journey back to the idyllic life they experienced as children, when phones were attached to the wall and kids played outside until the streetlights came on at dusk.

But the women quickly realize fractions aren’t their only problem. A sixty-year-old diary discovered in Kiersten’s basement raises unsettling questions about their neighborhood, their safety, and the seemingly simpler past.

Their picture-perfect suburb disguises deadly secrets—and someone wants to keep them hidden. As unsettling events rattle their fragile utopia, Kiersten, Rosamund, and Piper face an impossible choice. And if they expose the truth, they put everything at risk: their children, their friendship, and their newfound community.