Synopsis
When powerhouse real estate developer Lana Rubicon is sidelined by a health crisis, she relocates—reluctantly—to her daughter Beth’s quiet coastal town of Elkhorn Slough. Tensions simmer between Lana, Beth, and teenage granddaughter Jack—three strong women under one roof—until a murder hits close to home. When Jack finds the body of a local man during a kayak tour, suspicion begins to swirl, and Lana takes matters into her own hands. Determined to clear Jack’s name and solve the mystery, the Rubicon women are pulled into a tangled web of secrets, land disputes, and long-held grudges. Mother-Daughter Murder Night is a charming, fast-paced mystery about three generations of women reconnecting as they chase down a killer.
My Final Thoughts
Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon was such a cute and fun read. After Lana Rubicon—one of LA’s top commercial real estate developers—receives a devastating medical diagnosis, she’s forced to put her business on hold and retreat to her daughter’s home five hours outside the city. While it doesn’t sound like the worst thing that could happen to someone, for Lana, it absolutely is. What was supposed to be a six-week stay turns into four long months.
Lana quickly makes herself at home, ordering luxuries like a European pillowtop mattress and a sleeper sofa, while her daughter Beth Rubicon is just trying not to lose her mind. Beth, a geriatric nurse at a local long-term care facility, had come to Elkhorn as a pregnant teenager running from an unsupportive Lana. She built a life for herself and her daughter, Jack, in a fixer-upper by the slough—and she has no interest in having that peace disturbed, even by her own mother.
Jack, Beth’s fifteen-year-old daughter, works weekends at a kayak rental shop called the Kayak Shack. She loves the slough, the water, the freedom it offers—and she’s saving up to buy a boat and sail the open ocean. She’s at that age where she still dreams big but is starting to feel the weight of reality, trying to figure out how to support her mom and also chase her own future. Then Lana shows up—and everything shifts.
With all three Rubicon women now under the same roof, chaos truly begins when a man’s body is found in the muddy flats of the slough—discovered, no less, by tourists on one of Jack’s kayak tours.
Suddenly caught up in a murder investigation, Jack is shocked to realize someone might be trying to frame her. Lana, of course, refuses to let that happen. She and Jack launch their own amateur investigation (because, obviously, the detectives on the case are absolutely useless). Beth wants nothing to do with it—until an elderly patient at Bayshore Oaks (who owns a large swath of land on the slough) dies mysteriously the next day, and Lana is convinced the two deaths are connected. Begrudgingly, Beth joins the investigation.
Soon, the three of them are sitting around the dining table, trading theories and piecing together evidence. In between chemo appointments and doctor visits, Lana is holding meetings, analyzing documents, and using a corkboard in her bedroom to connect the dots. Once she figures out the bigger picture, all she has to do is put the plan into motion—without getting caught in the crossfire (literally or figuratively).
This was a fast-paced read with a sweet story at its core. I really wish I’d kept track of how many times the word slough was used (I swear, it’s in the hundreds), but that’s neither here nor there. About halfway through, you’ll figure out who’s responsible and why—it’s pretty obvious—but it doesn’t ruin the enjoyment. The story is still compelling, and you’ll want to keep reading just to see how it all unfolds.
There aren’t a ton of characters to keep track of, which I appreciated. If incompetent police work makes you cringe, then prepare to be annoyed by Detectives Ramirez and Nicoletti—who consistently miss the mark, ask the wrong questions, and talk to all the wrong people. And while the Central Coast Land Trust subplot adds a layer of complexity, it felt more like a red herring than a real twist.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I read it almost in one sitting (minus the 16 pages I started on Friday). Reese’s Book Club picks rarely disappoint—so I say, go ahead and read it.
whitneydaniell 
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