Part of the art of deception is distracting attention. One way this might be done is to write a murder mystery, plant clues to the mystery early in the story, and distract readers' attention from the clues and the mystery with a controversial image. Martin paints a controversial image, throughout the first 95% of this book, of a perfect father-to-be married to a perfect horrorcow. Since I can't believe a husband all THAT good being married to a wife all THAT bad, my suspension of disbelief is broken. I forgot all about rhw myawey. Arguably this is good mystery writing, but it's still bad novel writing so I've deducted a point.

Other than that, the mystery's a stumper and the surface message--be sure you're ready for a baby before you have one--is good. ( )