Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

Genre: Cozy, Traditional Mystery
Release: September 5, 2023
Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.

High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does.

Then Jack—tiny in stature but fiercely independent—happens upon a dead body while kayaking. She quickly becomes a suspect in the homicide investigation, and the Rubicon women are thrown into chaos. Beth thinks Lana should focus on recovery, but Lana has a better idea. She’ll pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power.

With Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn to do the one thing they’ve always resisted: depend on each other.

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Dru’s Short Musing:
Beth’s mom’s cancer diagnosis, her daughter finding a dead body and her favorite patient dying all play a key role in this well-written drama that quickly became a page-turner as I had to who did what to whom in this enterprisingly wicked mystery that I could not put down until all was said and done.

The author did a great job in detailing the crime, the motive, the players, and the clues that were interspersed throughout the telling of this suspenseful and intriguing tale. I enjoyed the backstory that made the mom, the daughter, and the granddaughter the person they are today as they ultimately worked together to find a killer hiding in plain sight. When I thought I had a handle of the person responsible, the author changed direction with a few strategically placed plot twists that enhanced my reading pleasure and ratcheted the drama up a notch to a fevered pitch and I all could do was watch it play out until the only person left standing was the killer. And I especially loved the bonding and self-discovery of the three generation of women. This was an excellent book and I look forward to more works from this author. Thank you, Jungle Red Writers for featuring Nina Simon on your blog here, which is how I discovered her novel.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a digital ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.