Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

 

What is your favorite book or movie that explores mother and daughter relationships?

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon is a delightful new novel that explores mother and daughter relationships during a murder investigation.  Lana Rubicon runs a powerful real estate empire in Los Angeles.  After she finds out she has cancer, needs treatment, and help, she moves in with her estranged daughter, Beth, and granddaughter, Jack in a coastal city three hundred miles north of LA.  While her relationship with Jack strengthens, Beth and Lana remain at odds.  Jack discovers a dead body while leading a tour group on a kayaking trip for her job, and quickly becomes the prime suspect.  Lana pushes all of her energy into solving this mystery to help her granddaughter.  Will she be able to solve this mystery and repair her relationship with her daughter?

I was not sure what to expect when I started reading Mother-Daughter Murder Night.  Were the mother and daughter committing murders, victims of murders, what exactly did the title mean?  The title is a memory that Lana and Beth have of watching crime shows together for a mother-daughter murder night.  Lana wishes she could bring those happy times back by solving this mystery.  I loved that.

This novel was all about family dynamics and relationships.  I loved the characters, especially strong-willed Lana and her equally strong-willed granddaughter Jack.  I felt at one with frazzled mom Beth trying to keep it all together.  I loved these relationships and would really enjoy seeing this book made into a movie.  The humor was fun throughout this book as well.

I enjoyed the cozy mystery aspect of this novel as well and wanted to know how it would end. I did guess the ending, but I enjoyed the journey getting there.

This is author Nina Simon’s debut novel and I can’t wait to see what she writes next.  I thought it was touching to find out in the acknowledgement section that Nina wrote this novel with her own mother as a project to divert them from her mother’s cancer and treatment.

Book Source:  Review copy from NetGalley and William Morrow Books. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.