March 2006
Suburban Snake Pit
RATTLED
By Debra Galant (St. Martin's Press)
Debra Galant's hilarious first novel is set in a New Jersey McMansion development and revolves around Heather Peters, the type of housewife who, during labor, "reapplied her lipstick in between contractions." Heather's luxury estate is in the middle of the woods, home of the endangered timber rattlesnake, and the killing of one of those creatures sets off a series of wacky but satisfyingly satirical events - an arrest, a media circus, a plot involving animal rights activists, and a school crisis that will strike a chord with anyone who has ever done PTA time. KATE MANNING
