Mother-Daughter Murder Night

Hardcover, 368 pages

English language

Published Sept. 5, 2023 by William Morrow.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-331504-4

(2 reviews)

Think: Gilmore Girls, but with murder.

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, …

Think: Gilmore Girls, but with murder.

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.

3 editions

Divya Manian reviewed Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

Readable mystery set in Monterey

3 stars

Ostensibly about a Filipino-jewish woman who lives in Monterey who has a high powered real-estate agent & Filipino American mother with cancer who joins her in solving a murder. I really do not like copaganda and sadly this book tries to include a Native American cop who does the "right thing" but still how is that not copaganda? Also there is almost nothing Filipino in the book about ostensibly 3 Filipino American protagonists.

The book is very readable though. My quest for mysteries without copaganda continues.

Annie the Book reviewed Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon

3 stars

I have seen some odd things in mystery novels. Usually, these odd things are creative ways of killing people or highly original motives. Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon, is the first time I’ve ever seen a murder investigation become a form of family therapy. The deaths of two men turned out to do more to bring the Rubicon women together than pregnancy, cancer, or coming of age ever did...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type.