MOTHER'S DAY OUT - Karen MacInerney

Life is pretty typical for stay-at-home mom Margie Peterson. She’s got two young kids, an attorney husband who never quite makes partner, and a fixer-upper house she doesn’t have the money to fix. Things are rolling along fine until the first preschool tuition bill hits the mailbox, and Margie realizes it’s time to take out a second mortgage…or get a job.

Margie’s mother-in-law wants her to join the Junior League, her mother thinks her aura needs adjusting, and her husband wants her to sell Tupperware. But Margie decides on something more exciting than washing dishes at charity teas or matching plastic lids with bowls.

When a seedy PI agency hires her as a part-time private investigator, Margie finds herself tracking an obese plumbing salesman with a penchant for Saran Wrap and bargain-basement hookers. But Margie’s no Sam Spade. By the end of her first day, she’s totaled her minivan, submitted a picture of a naked man in Saran Wrap to the school newsletter, and accidentally participated in a drag queen contest. When she finds a dead transvestite in the “Princesses’” room of a gay bar, she decides it may be time to hang up her hat and start planning Tupperware parties. Then she picks up the drag queen’s phone … and discovers the last call the dead man made was to Margie’s own house.
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This was FUN! This is what it would have been if Lucille Ball had decided to become a private investigator.
Marigold 'Margie' Peterson wants to earn some extra money. Her husband wants her to be a SAHM and join the Junior League to help him move up to partner in the law firm. 
Margie finds Peaches, a private investigator, and asks for a tryout. Peaches reluctantly gives her a shot with an infidelity case. Margie gets her man, wrapped in plastic wrap, and it's pedal to the metal from there on out.
She wins points with the snooty headmistress of her children's pre-school by agreeing to look into missing school funds. And her next job leads her into getting third place in a drag queen contest.
I loved this book. I could identify with Margie's need to get out of the house and find herself again. She is more than a mother and wife and definitely more than Junior League material. She has the coolest best friend, Becky, who helps her out in more ways than one.
I do hope there will be more adventures with Margie. I love Karen MacInerney's other two series I've read, Grey Whale Inn Mystery and Tales of an Urban Werewolf, and now I can add Marigold's adventures to the mix.