Mother-Daughter Murder Night - Nina Simon

I heard about this book when I was working on our line up for the year. It's a Reese's Book Club pick, which is usually a good sign. And it's a debut novel! Perfect for Cover to Cocktails.

This book follows three women (so really it should be called Grandmother-Mother-Daughter Murder Night), Lana (grandmother/mother), Beth (mother/daughter), and Jack (daughter). Lana is a very successful businesswoman living in LA, until she collapses one morning and finds out she has Stage 4 cancer. She moves into Beth's "shabby house in a back water town" (Lana's words) during her treatments so Beth can take care of her. Beth works as a nurse while raising her daughter Jacqueline (Jack) on her own. Jack is fifteen years old and loves the water. She spends all her free time on the water, paddleboarding, or working as a guide at the Kayak Shack.

One evening Lana hears a scream and peers out her window with binoculars (this is not unusual, she has trouble sleeping and gets bored so she has binoculars for bird watching, but this is more interesting). She is sure that she sees someone on the other side of the river doing something they shouldn't be doing.

The next day, Jack is leading a kayak tour and they discover a dead body floating in the river. The police come and somehow Jack lands on their list of suspects. The next day when the police visit Jack and Lana at home and try to intimidate Jack into a confession, Lana decides it's time to take matters into her own hands and starts investigating on her own. At first, Beth is against it, but as the investigation gets more complicated and the police keep questioning Jack, she joins her mother and helps to solve the crime.

Lana finds multiple suspects with far more plausible motives than Jack, not that the police are interested. The crime seems to revolve around farmland that was recently inherited by siblings. The brother and sister both want to use the farm differently, one wants to build a retreat, while the other wants to sell it. Then there is the director of a land trust that their father had promised to donate the land to in the future. The victim, Ricardo Cruz, worked for the land trust, and there are insinuations throughout the book that he just might be a half sibling and potential inheritor of the farm as well.

Throughout the novel, Lana, Beth, and Jack begin to understand and appreciate each other more, and not just because they are solving a murder together. The three become a much closer family.

Both Jen and I enjoyed this book. We liked Lana's feisty attitude, even as she was going through cancer treatments. We could also relate to Beth and her need to forge her own path away from her mother. And Jack was a somewhat typical teenager with big dreams within the confines of rules. The story was enjoyable and the mystery was very well done. We were guessing right up to the end. The supporting characters were well thought out and all the suspects were plausible.

If you enjoy a murder mystery, give this one a try!

Jen - 📘📘📘📘

Susan - 📘📘📘📘

Until next time, have a drink, read a book, and be happy!