The debut novel of Hannah Sellinger, Valley of the Moms is a tale about corruption and betrayal clothed within an intimate Massachusetts community.
Anna Plummer, her husband Denny, their two children and dog live in Hamilton; a town that seems perfectly ordinary, at least on the surface.
Hamilton, however, tiered for the haves and the have nots, where wealthy moms don designer duds for playground play dates. Nowhere is the divide more evident than in the school system, where wealthier families pay to ensure that their offspring receive perks and privileges.
Anna learns that the hard way when her young daughter is devastated when her participation in a much-anticipated school dance is denied because the Plummer family hasn’t anted up the Premium Membership fee that would have allowed little Louisa early access to tickets.
Anna is incensed by the injustice and seeks to right the wrong and bring more equality to the system. Unbeknownst to Denny, she takes on the solid long-standing PTO president Mimi Mar. Anna has no idea who she is dealing with and what depths the organization will go to to keep their secrets safe, so she is compelled to continue. Unfortunately, a year later she is dead.
Amidst taking care of his children and attempting to piece life back together, grief-stricken Denny finds himself the primary suspect. When the wheels of the uncooperative and seemingly uncaring police department turn too slowly, he takes it upon himself to quietly investigate his wife’s clandestine life to find out what happened to her.
Exploring themes of trust, betrayal, and the consequences of corrupted loyalties, Valley of the Moms flips between the present, and the increasingly dangerous inroads Anna was making that could blow the PTO and its annually uncontested leader out of the water.
An interesting read, Valley of the Moms is a slow burn that gets more complicated as the plot thickens. It made me glad that this life in Hamilton Massachusetts is only fiction.
Valley of the Moms
Hannah Sellinger
Little, Brown & Company 2026
304 pages
J Curran
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