Young adult author Elise Bryant releases her first adult novel, IT’S ELEMENTARY and smashes it out of the park. Mavis Miller is a busy, single mother with a lot on her plate. The last thing she needs is to head a new committee for Knoll Elementary’s PTA. Yet, when she’s roped into the job by PTA Queen and President Trisha Holbrook, Mavis soon realizes that this PTA group is a force to be reckoned with, and they’re not above eliminating those that stand in their way.
When Mavis agrees to be the new DEI committee chairperson and attends her first PTA meeting, she witnesses the fireworks between the new principal, Mr. Smith, and PTA President Trisha Holbrook. The disagreement stems from whether Knollwood Elementary should apply to become a gifted school. Those students who aren’t in the gifted program would have to move to another school. The principal says no, but Trisha always gets what she wants, and when Mr. Smith goes missing, Mavis’s suspicions turn to Trisha as the culprit. On the night of Mr. Smith’s disappearance, Mavis saw something she couldn’t explain. Was it a crime in progress or something else? As Mavis joins forces with the handsome school psychologist, Jack Cohen, they start investigating Mr. Smith’s disappearance and uncover another crime in the process. Will Mavis solve both crimes and survive the wrath of the PTA?
IT’S ELEMENTARY is a high-spirited, fun ride through the antics of the well-meaning, but often overbearing parent group at a local elementary school. Mavis’s voice is intelligent, humorous, insightful, and self-reflecting. She owns it when she gets something wrong, but she forges ahead with the support of her family and friends. She knows she’s a great mom, an underpaid non-profit employee, and a not-so-subtle but pretty effective detective as she tackles the clues. There are plenty of humorous moments, and the banter between Mavis and her sleuthing partner, handsome Jack, is cute and charming. Mavis lives with her retired father and is divorced from her touring musician ex-husband. It will be interesting to see how the ex-husband fits into future mysteries. The plot moves quickly, the dialogue is engaging, and Mavis is a highly likable character. Filled with school drama, competitive moms, a disappearance, missing books, and a budding romance, IT’S ELEMENTARY is a thoroughly entertaining mystery that earns an A+.
A fast-paced, completely delightful new mystery about what happens when parents get a little too involved in their kids' schools, from NAACP Image Award nominee Elise Bryant.
Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. She has enough on her plate with her feisty seven-year-old daughter, Pearl, an exhausting job at a nonprofit, and the complexities of a multigenerational household. So no one is more surprised than Mavis when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee.
As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day.
Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning, and has been MIA since the meeting. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Mavis, along with the school psychologist with the great forearms (look, it’s worth noting), launches an investigation that will challenge her views on parenting, friendship, and elementary school politics.
Brilliantly written, It's Elementary is a quick-witted, escapist romp that perfectly captures just how far parents will go to give their kids the very best, all wrapped in a mystery that will leave you guessing to the very end.
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