Just the Fax, Ma'am

Housewife Molly Masters once dreamed of being ''the heroic ace reporter who single-handedly exposed some unconscionable crime against humanity.'' Instead she writes humorous greeting cards and doubles as a suburban Nancy Drew who thinks nothing of tossing her kids in the backseat to head for a play date — or a car chase. When her babysitter, Tiffany, is suspected of killing her own dad, Masters dyes her hair purple and goes undercover at the local high school. Alas, teen speak turns out to be a foreign language...which she's flunking. Still, Leslie O'Kane's Just the Fax, Ma'am is an amusing tale — and encouraging to those who wonder if it's still possible to find excitement once you've traded in your Miata for a minivan. B