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Mother-Daughter Murder Night

A Novel

Audiobook
0 of 4 copies available
0 of 4 copies available

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK

Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.

"I just loved how intriguing the mystery is but also the dynamics between a grandmother, a mother, and a teenage daughter."" —Reese Witherspoon

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.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 10, 2023
      Three women bond while investigating a homicide in Simon’s spirited debut. Lana Rubicon and her 17-year-old daughter, Beth, become estranged when Beth gets pregnant and relocates five hours north of Los Angeles to raise her baby alone. Fifteen years later, Lana is a high-powered L.A. real estate developer, and Beth is a nurse who shares a humble cottage in Elkhorn Slough with her now-teenage daughter, Jack. Though Lana has always refused to visit Beth and Jack’s “shack about to fall into a mud pit,” she moves in while undergoing treatment for cancer. Four months of cohabitation do nothing to curb her feelings of uselessness and alienation from her daughter and granddaughter, however. Then, a kayak tour led by Jack comes across naturalist Ricardo Cruz’s floating corpse. Racist local police target Jack—who’s half Filipino on her father’s side—based on the flimsy testimony of one of her clients, and Lana resolves to exonerate her granddaughter and reconnect with Beth in the process. Simon stocks her layered plot with plausibly motivated suspects and convincing red herrings, but it’s her indomitable female characters and their nuanced relationships that give this mystery its spark. Readers will be delighted. Agent: Stefanie Lieberman, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from March 1, 2024

      Simon's (The Art of Relevance) charming fiction debut features a mother-daughter-granddaughter trio who must work through their complicated relationships to solve a murder. After being diagnosed with cancer, glamorous Los Angeles real estate tycoon Lana Rubicon moves in with her adult daughter Beth and Beth's teenage daughter Jack in their somewhat shabby cottage in a sleepy coastal California town. Jack, who is still in school and also works part-time as a kayak guide, becomes a murder suspect when a dead body is discovered in the waters where she was leading a tour. Beth pleads with her mother to help pay for an attorney for Jack, but Lana (who has already redecorated Beth's entire house and is looking for another distraction) decides that she herself will investigate, find the real murderer, and clear her granddaughter's name. Soon Beth and Jack get roped into Lana's sleuthing, creating a hilariously dysfunctional multigenerational investigative team. Narrator Jane Oppenheimer portrays the three women's forceful personalities with gusto, perfectly balancing the novel's humor and tension as Lana, Beth, and Jack try to find a killer without killing each other. VERDICT The family dynamics are just as entertaining as the well-constructed plot in this heartwarming audiobook, perfect for listeners who enjoy lighthearted mysteries featuring strong women protagonists.--Beth Farrell

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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