Book Review: Mother-Daughter Murder Night

Spoilers!

What does any great classic family drama story — replete with mother-daughter tension, the uncertainty of cancer, a strong-willed teenager, and a fish-out-of-water dynamic — need? A murder mystery to solve! That’s such a nice twist on how to handle those family drama elements. Nina Simon’s 2023 novel, Mother-Daughter Murder Night, was an engrossing whodunit with an unlikely amateur detective at the helm of solving it. I thoroughly enjoyed Simon’s book; it snuck up on me as among my favorite mystery reads of the year. 

Lana Rubicon is a high-powered, fiercely independent real estate developer in Los Angeles, who purposefully put her career ahead of her daughter and granddaughter, Beth and Jack (short for Jacqueline — I love that!), to ensure she wouldn’t be professionally stymied by the personal. Then, she faints, can’t make it back to her feet, and learns she has numerous tumors on her brain. That leads her needing to move in with Beth and Jack in their (in her view) shabby shack in Elkhorn Slough. The slough is a way of life for the locals and especially 15-year-old Jack, who is a kayak tour guide on the slough. For those who don’t know, I never read a synopsis prior to reading a book since I prefer going in blind. So, realizing these family dynamics with Lana needing to move in with Beth, I anticipated a good chunk of the first half of the book to be about that tension. But Simon fast-forwarded 17 weeis after the move-in, which confused me at first given that expectation! But it actually made sense for what followed. In other words, Simon didn’t need to bog her plot down with that tension that was readily apparent that she could instead continue telling through the murder mystery. Very clever! 

The murder: During one of Jack’s tours, a father and son find a body in the mud flats. Jack showed great daring and adultness by immediately swimming over to the body to render aid if they were still alive. But of course, they are dead and it’s later learned that they were murdered. Worse still for the kayak tour establishment is that the murder victim has a lifejacket on from the kayak tour and was supposed to go on the tour. The two sheriff’s detectives interview Jack about it and the male on the team, Detective Nicoletti, was a real jerk and hard ass to a child about murder! Grrr. But Detective Ramirez turned out to be a great side character who eventually took Lana and Jack seriously. Just as Lana felt like she had to prove herself in a male-dominated industry of real estate, Detective Ramirez also feels like she needs to prove herself in the male-dominated industry of policing.

Lana, again, facing cancer and the added tension with her daughter, decides to investigate the murder on her own. That the impetus was cancer — and the desire to feel useful and perhaps distract from the aforementioned uncertainty of the future by digging into the past — was an inspired decision by Simon and really made this murder mystery stand out. Also, it must be said, Lana’s additional motive for solving the murder was in order to absolve or redirect the focus off of Jack. Given her background, it’s no surprise how industrious and ingenious Lana is as an amateur detective. Particularly impressive is her perseverance to track down evidence and talk to witnesses despite cancer — or more appropriately, chemotherapy — trying its damndest to slow her down. This could all be enough for a compelling path forward for Simon’s book, but she adds another wrinkle to it I just loved. Jack also begins assisting with solving the murder largely by helping Lana better understand the slough and the movements of the body once dumped in the water. It was a great dynamic between the two, which also served to give Beth a hard lesson to grapple with: her daughter is growing up and forging her own independence. And just because *you* have issues with your mother doesn’t mean your daughter’s relationship with her grandmother is going to the same. 

As murder often does, it comes down to either love or money. In this case, Ricardo, the murder victim, may have been killed because of a land dispute. Hal Rhoads, who also died recently, was the patriarch of a sprawling ranch near the slough. With his death, what becomes of the land? His son, Martin, argues for selling it to help fund his struggling nanotechnology startup. Diana, the daughter, wants to turn it into a high-level, high-priced equestrian therapy destination. Victor, who runs a nonprofit for establishing land trusts, has a letter of intent from Hal to turn the ranch over to the nonprofit so no development can happen. And finally, we later learn Ricardo — who was practically raised by Hal after his father was killed in a barn fire that also killed Hal’s wife — was working with Hal on making the ranch a farmer incubator for various minority groups who are usually shut out from those opportunities. 

Now, Lana is not perfect as a detective. In fact, like most amateur detectives, Lana oscillates between a few different suspects. She zeros in on Paul, the eccentric, lackadaisical owner of the kayak tour business. After all, it was his life jacket on Ricardo. He’s also acting suspicious about a tiny bit of land he owns connected to the Rhoads ranch. Turns out it’s not nefarious in a murder way: he and another business partner were growing marijuana plants. Lana then thinks perhaps Victor is the culprit to ensure the land goes up him since a LOI is not binding. Victor also could’ve felt betrayed by Ricardo, who was ostensibly also working on the land trust, but had the farmer incubator idea. Adding fuel to the fire, when Lana visited the nonprofit to go through their Rhoads files, Victor seemingly left her in the library, which is when a fire started. The bad-ass she is, Lana uses her very sharp stiletto to break through the window and save herself. That’s when Lana solidified herself as an awesome character! But nope, it wasn’t Victor either. So, Lana turns to Diana, who seemed to be hiding her relationship to Ricardo. Lana speculates if that is because it turned sexual. Gross. No, not her, either, and it wasn’t sexual. He was like a nephew to her.

Martin was the killer! And Lana, in addition to figuring out the direct evidence implicating him, also sussed out the motivation. He felt his father “replaced” him with Ricardo, and of course, the money motivation. Worse still, it went deeper and further back than that. As a child, Martin accidentally set the barn fire that killed his mother (and Ricardo’s father). Hal supposedly told Martin he’d never forgive him. After killing Ricardo, Martin killed his own father and then set the fire at the nonprofit that nearly killed Lana in a brazen (and stupid!) attempt to destroy any damning documents. 

Where Lana perhaps gets a bit over her skis is thinking she can deal with someone she’s identified as a murderer. After she confronts Martin about all of this, he slaps her unconscious! The bastard! But then I loved how Jack tried to tackle him. She’s so cool. Martin’s plan is to intentionally set a barn fire this time that would kill the Rubicon family and his own sister. Fortunately, Beth gives Jack the idea to swing a kayak at Martin knocking the wind out of him long enough for Detective Ramirez to save the day. 

What a great book! I loved reading about Lana and Jack unfurling the mystery of the murder. Let’s just turn this into a regular Sherlock series. 😂 The title is a reference to how Lana and Beth used to love watching murder shows and trying to guess the killer. It makes sense as a title (and from a marketing perspective), but I also feel like there has to be a way to reference the Lana and Jack dynamic. (I also thought the title was a reference to a mother-daughter *being* the killers, ha!) Maybe, Don’t Cross the Rubicon? I’m kidding, I think. Regardless of what it’s called, Simon’s book is a winner. Most importantly and poignantly, Simon said the book grew out of her mother’s own cancer diagnosis. The book became a way of wrestling with it and working together on something joyful. You could call it a “mother-daughter murder night.” Okay, I’m sold on the title now. Simon did a beautiful job of detailing the love between these two strong women in Lana and Beth and a child with Jack. Notably, this was also Simon’s debut book, which portends such promise for whatever she does next.