Two new murder mysteries penned by home-grown authors
Hancock Park inspired a new book on murder and parenting
By Suzan Filipek
Jordan Roter’s new novel, “Moms Like Us,” begins with a murder, an unusual start for a book about being a parent in Los Angeles.
More specifically it is about parents in Hancock Park and inspired by Roter’s experiences as a mom and her encounters with the world of private schools.
“I hope the takeaway is not about the murder but the expectations put on women and mothers in particular … and exploring that community and to be honest and have a good sense of humor about it,” Roter told us during a phone interview last month.
She knows a thing or two about comedy. This is her third book—the first two were for young adults—and she has a 15-year career in TV and film writing.
Jordan Roter. Photo by Katie Jones
Her new book has risen to the #1 bestseller slot in the women’s fiction category on Amazon.
In the book, published May 6 by Little A, things turn out terribly wrong on an annual glamping trip to Santa Barbara, where Roter has gone on actual outings with her family.
While nothing nefarious happened in the real-life version, she found the closeness with parents and their kids on the trip was more stressful than when she went backpacking for weeks in the wilderness, Roter notes.
Roter’s friend and colleague, comedic actress Amy Poehler, calls the book “a fun and juicy page-turner.”
Roter is also proud of another quote, “‘Moms Like Us’ does for Hancock Park what ‘Big Little Lies’ did for Monterey.”
In truth, “I don’t go west of Fairfax or east of Vermont. I stay in my little lane,” she says. “I love our neighborhood.”
Roter lives in Hancock Park with her husband and two children.
After many rom-com novels, local author pens a mystery
By Nona Sue Friedman
“Writing is what I always did, even as a kid,” says local author Abbi Waxman. For the last 18
ABBI WAXMAN has written many books that take place in the Larchmont area.
years, she’s lived in Windsor Square where she raised her three kids. She didn’t start writing novels until she became a mother. Her seventh and most recent book, “One Death at a Time,” came out in April.
It’s her first mystery and the first in a series. The second installment is already written and will be released in April 2026. The story follows a woman who is a soon-to-become detective searching for justice. She starts in Los Angeles and meanders through the Southland.
Mysteries are a stray from her previous six books, which are considered rom-coms. Waxman wanted to write a mystery for 
quite some time, but her publisher was successful with the rom-coms and didn’t want to rock the boat. But with mysteries becoming more popular in print and on television recently, they let her try a new genre.
The rom-coms are all about the neighborhood, which is her favorite one in all of Los Angeles. “I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. It’s a village in a big city,” says Waxman. Many of those pages were written in the back room of Le Pain Quotidien. In fact, one of her books, “The Bookish Life of Nina Hill,” takes place in a fictional version of Chevalier’s Books. Want to read some of her novels? Stop by the real Chevalier’s—it has a nice assortment of her work.
Category: Entertainment
