Liane Moriarty's 'Big Little Lies': A+

At the advent of turning forty, Madeline MacKenzie is juggling quite a bit. For starters, she's competing fruitlessly for the affections of petulant teenage daughter Abigail, who would rather spend time with her young yogi stepmother Bonnie, not to mention a father who walked out on them both years before.

When younger daughter Chloe begins kindergarten, it is a blessing and a curse. She meets Jane Chapman, a single mother new in town. Jane helps her out in a sticky situation early on, and the favor gets returned when hell breaks loose at the children's school. Jane's  five-year-old boy Ziggy gets accused of choking classmate Amabella, the daughter of a high-powered businesswoman named Renata. The school soon becomes divided; one side is in favor of Jane and son Ziggy while the other revolves around Renata and a school petition to have the little boy expelled.

Meanwhile Madeline's best friend battles domestic issues of a different kind. On the surface, Celeste and Perry White have won the game of life. They have beauty and wealth; after spending years trying for children, they end up with twin boys. But husband and wife have a secret they've kept very well. That is, until Celeste has had enough.

The scenes of abuse involving Jane and Celeste are difficult yet very well-executed sections of writing which push you to a state of vulnerability I wasn't initially prepared for. Liane Moriarty interweaves the story lines of these three mothers brilliantly, building up to a gripping ending at the school trivia night.

She also writes a good antagonist. Perry White is a horrifyingly complex character whose layers of mixed emotion and violence make for some shocking moments. Slightly lesser characters like Renata and Harper have a satirical bite to them as well, charmingly reminiscent of mothers of children I went through grade school with.

Lies is an irresistible piece of drama, and the quickest four-hundred pages I'll read all year.