A marvelous story of family and perseverance. I loved the characters. They were well developed and had great interpersonal conflict and resolution. The plot was intriguing and kept me guessing throughout without being stressed. Overall, I loved this story! I plan to force my mom to read it next.

If you were a fan of Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, then you need to read Mother Daughter Murder Night.

A little bit of a darker, cozy mystery, with some comedic moments. But, lots of depth as well, as the book deals with the complicated relationships between parents and their children.

Mother Daughter Murder Night involves three generations of Rubicon women. Lana, our matriarch, is staying with her daughter and granddaughter while she undergoes treatment for cancer. A powerful woman who is used to being listened to and respected is feeling the complete opposite now that she's ill. When her granddaughter, Jack, finds a dead body and the detectives suggests that 15 year old Jack had something to do with his death, Lana now has a project, she has to figure out who killed this man. But Lana and her daughter Beth have a bit of a strained relationship, and Beth resists Lana's attempts to solve this crime.

I really went into this not knowing what it was about, and it wasn't actually what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more of a darker thriller. But I love a good cozy whodunit, so I really enjoyed this book. I read this book in a couple of days. It definitely kept me hooked.

The story was interesting and definitely kept me guessing. The Rubicon women were great characters. Beth wasn't my favorite at first, but she really grew on me. Especially when you get a better understanding of why her relationship was so strained with her mom. I loved the secondary characters as well, especially Miss Gigi from Bayshore Oaks' long-term care home.

I'd definitely recommend adding this delightfully cozy murder mystery to your fall reading list.

I received an advanced digital copy of this book for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

"Mother-Daughter Murder Night" by Nina Simon is a Cozy Mystery Whodunit!

Who doesn't love a fun and entertaining debut novel, I ask you?

If you're looking for an edge-of-your-seat murder mystery, look elsewhere. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of suspects here and a couple of good twists, but this story is primarily about main character, Lana Rubicon, her adult daughter Beth, and teenage granddaughter Jack, short for Jacqueline Avital Santos Rubicon aka 'Tiny'. She's small.

This was an estranged family until four months ago when Lana called Beth to let her know about her cancer diagnosis. That's when she moved from her fancy condo in Los Angeles to Beth's and Jack's little bungalow above Elkhorn Slough on Monterey Bay.

Surgery first, then three months of chemo, now she's two weeks away from her first scans to check improvement.

With Beth at work, Jack at school, boredom sets in for Lana and watching life outside her window through a set of binoculars is her main pastime. While watching one night, she sees a man with a flashlight pushing a wheelbarrow down the hill to the slough. That can't be good.

The next day, Jack discovers a dead body in the slough while leading a kayaking tour. Questioned by police, Jack becomes the first suspect. Enraged, Lana decides to start her own investigation and Beth and Jack soon jump-in to assist. The female super-sleuthing begins...

"Mother Daughter Murder Night" is a cozy-mystery with spots of humor and interesting family dynamics. It seems nothing brings a family together like a little neighborhood murder...or two. Loads of well-drawn characters, especially Grandmother Lana with her wigs, spiked heels, and no-fear determination. What a great character!

"Mother Daughter Murder Night" is a debut that was written with a purpose by the California author whose own mother was diagnosed with cancer. This book became their shared project creating much needed joy and focus. Be sure to read the author's Acknowledgments at the end of the book for more details.

"Mother Daughter Murder Night" was a welcomed respite after reading a dense and exhausting read. Was this story realistic and believable? Absolutely not. What it was, was easy to read, fun and entertaining. I'll take that over a complicated reading experience, every single time, and I wholeheartedly recommend this book to readers who look for and desire the same!

4⭐

Thank you to NetGalley, William Morrow, and Nina Simon for an ALC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review.

I’m so sorry, I just did not like this book. I really wanted to love it but it was hard to get through. I thought it was boring and predictable. I guessed the killer the second they were introduced. I liked the grandma, mom, and granddaughter but beyond that… not for me.

If Emily, Lorelai, and Rory Gilmore teamed up to solve a murder it might read something like this! I was invested not only in solving the crime, but in unraveling the complicated issues and relationships of these women. Our youngest heroine, Jack, starts our adventure with the discovery of a dead body while on the job leading a kayak tour of her home away from home, the slough near her house. When one of the detectives on the case comes at Jack too aggressively for her grandmother Lana’s liking, Lana can’t help but appoint herself detective, determined to find the real murderer. With both her mother, who is currently fighting cancer, and her teenaged daughter involved, Beth can’t help but lend her assistance as well. The result is a fun, female-empowered caper through the slough, around several distractions and red herrings, into a satisfying conclusion.

Thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley for the advanced copy. I really enjoyed reading this book. There is an enjoyable mystery to follow, but more importantly there is the story of strong women trying to navigate their complicated relationships (while at the same time trying to solve said mystery). The character of Lana, in particular, is a force that I hope will turn up in more stories in the future.

After a man shows up dead; the Rubicon family is thrust into a murder mystery to clear their name, ensure their waters are safe, and ultimately to solve a good mystery.

This was enjoyable, but I did find it slow at times. The beginning had some good pace, but by the middle I was wanting to skim to the end. It was more of a slow burn and although there was focus on plot, there was also a lot of time/focus spent on the characters and their dialogue. For me, it just ended up having too much time of not much movement or forward progression; but it was well written and I think many will love this.

I loved this debut novel by @ninaksimon & the story behind her writing of this book! As an oncology nurse, I so often hear about how patients don’t want to be defined by cancer. I love that Nina & her mom wrote this book as a way to make memories together! On top of that, this is a great murder mystery that is full of twists and great comedic one liners that are timed perfectly. The story follows an estranged family, full of strong women. A cancer diagnosis brings the three women under one roof, but it is a local murder that really pulls them together. Can this trio discover who the murderer is before someone else is killed?!

Seriously, just go ahead and pre-order this one! I’ve put my order in for a physical copy!

As always, thank you @williammorrowbooks and @netgalley for allowing me to read this book ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

This was a good mystery story by Nina Simon. It is about three generations of women a mom her daughter and granddaughter who try to solve a murder mystery. Thanks William Morrow and Netgalley for my arc.

Thank you Netgalley and William Morrow for this arc.

I don’t read too many contemporary murder mysteries but this one sounded interesting. The dynamics of the Rubicon women caught my attention and made me want to read about them. In a way, solving the murder was kind of a side interest to watching the way Lana Rubicon power walked into a scene and grabbed it with both hands. Lana is the kind of woman who can make grown men fear and obey her and now she’s passing on some of her skills to her granddaughter – while solving a murder.

I was correct to pay more attention to the women of the book and how they go about solving the murder rather than be focused on the “who-dunnit.” The Rubicon women are tough each in their own way. Lana, as mentioned, has built her own career and makes men sweat merely at the sound of her heels coming down the hall. She’s a steamroller and lets little stand in her way. Cancer? She might be staggering a bit in exhaustion a few days after her chemo sessions but can still shove the weakness aside and pull off a power suit and designer shoes while intimidating Jack’s loser boss with a direct stare. Though I would love to believe that Lana could pull off all she does, it seems a little bit of a stretch for a woman at the end of five months of chemo.

Beth seems like the quiet, gentler one but she stuck to her guns, kept her baby, renovated her house, went to nursing school, and has raised Jack alone with no help from the father and little from her mother. She might not be able to completely rein her mother in but she can curb her a little. Beth has also dealt with the stares and comments about her biracial daughter and unlike Lana, Beth knows things can be stacked against Jack just because of the color of her skin. She is fiercely protective of her daughter but also doesn’t let Jack get away with breaking rules they’ve made.

Jack loves the slough, loves being on the water, loves seeing the natural world around her and is horrified at what her tourists found. Even after her grandmother’s spirited defense and the investigation turns away from her as “person of interest,” Jack is keen to help figure out what really happened and why. The more time she spends with Lana – or Prima as Jack calls her – the more life lessons and negotiating skills Lana imparts to her about getting men to do what you want.

These women are tough and fierce when they need to be. Do they eventually crack the case? Well, eventually. There are a plethora of possible culprits with motives, secrets, and means to have done the crime. There’s also a police detective who is determined to shoo Lana and her interference off the case. I enjoyed watching them put their skills and knowledge to work as well as following along via the clues lightly scattered along the way. The final paragraphs hint at possible future books which I would be happy to read. B

Woah! Ok, so this is on my highly anticipated read list.
And I have the opportunity to read and review it!
They had at me at….. The Maid meets The Last Thing He Told Me. Sign me up!

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon brilliantly infuses comedy and mystery into the unpredictable murder mystery.
A tightly-plotted, story, Mother-Daughter Murder Night keeps you guessing till the very last twist.
I enjoyed the laugh out loud moments, the characters and the family dynamic was so relatable.
Something about Simon’s writing made their personalities so vivid.
This was a page turner; I found it hard to put down.
The web of lies, family vendettas and mystery that is so tangled I was immediately sucked into.
This book is very well written, the pace is excellent and made for an all around phenomenal read.
A remarkable debut whodunnit about a grandmother-mother-daughter trio who come together as amateur sleuths to solve a murder in their coastal California town.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own."

Thank You NetGalley and William Morrow for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Book Club Hotel by Sarah Morgan
This is a fun book about college friends who remain close by getting together yearly for a “book vacation.” Friends Erica, Claudia and Anna are all turning 40, and a trip to the Maple Sugar Inn in Vermont seems like the perfect place to catch up and talk books.
Little do they know that Erica has chosen the Maple Sugar Inn for a very different reason. Each character faces a challenge and is able to overcome it with the help of good friends and family.
This book delves into what makes a family, why these relationships are so important to us and what we do when our ideas of our past are different than what we thought.
#netgalley

4.25⭐️

<i> Nothing brings an estranged family together like a murder next door. </i>

This was a fun murder mystery. It felt a bit like Gilmore Girls, if Emily channeled Jessica Fletcher. I loved the strong and quirky and complicated female characters/ dynamics, and the mystery was decently intriguing enough to sustain the story.

Thank you Nina Simon, author, William Morrow, and NetGalley for providing this ARC for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book was nothing like what I expected from the title and description. I had high expectations, and it started out as a pretty fun read, with a fun family dynamic and mostly strong female main characters, but I quickly lost interest when it turned into a modern amateur-ish Nancy Drew type mystery.

Don’t get me wrong - I love a good mystery. This one just seemed almost like YA writing with the grandmother becoming the detective.

I ended up skimming pages because I wanted to know the outcome, but wasn’t invested enough to read it thoroughly and intently.

It was OK - just not for me.

Dysfunctional family trying to solve a murder? Sign me up! This book was great! I love the dynamics between the grandma, mom, and teenage daughter. I read it quickly as I couldn't put it down. I received an advanced readers copy and all opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this intergenerational story of a grandmother/mother/daughter working together to solve a murder. I will say I had to suspend disbelief for some of this because OF COURSE you should not investigate a murder on your own but once I got beyond that I really enjoyed reading about the relationship between these three generations of women. The mystery frequently took a back seat to the dynamics between the three women, but I liked that the focus was on the women and their lives instead of only the murder. This was a lighter murder-mystery book.

The author’s note as well as the lovely author interview I participated in through Cindy’s thoughts from a page enhanced my enjoyment of this novel. Simon wrote this with her mother after her mother was diagnosed with cancer. I love the idea that writing this book gave them both something positive to focus on.

4.5 stars

This was a great debut novel from Nina Simon. It was an entertaining mystery at it's core, but it turned out to be so much more!

Lana is a powerful business woman living in LA. After a fall, she learns that she has cancer. She has to give up her high-powered life and move in with her daughter Beth and her granddaughter Jack, in a small bungalow in a secluded coastal town. Beth and her mother have always had a difficult relationship, so this makes for an interesting dynamic.

Lana is so bored and takes to looking out the window with binoculars and sees some strange activity. Then, independent teenager, Jack, discovers a dead body on one of her kayaking trips that she leads with her job at the small boat shop. Jack is quickly on the homicide detective's radar as a suspect. These strong women all band together to help solve the mystery and clear Jack's name. I loved watching all of these characters grow, heal and love each other. They are all strong women and have to really learn to put old differences in the past and work together to trust each other.

I really loved this story and was very excited to participate in an author chat with Nina. She was so kind and generous with sharing her own personal stories. I love the special connection to her Mother and how this story came about from her own experiences. Nina is such a dynamic person who has held many interesting jobs. I cannot wait to see what she brings us in the future!.

I want to give a big thank you to @ninaksimon , William Morrow, @NetGalley and Cindy from @thoughtsfromapage podcast for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. Another great pick from Cindy and a wonderful author chat.

So I will say straight away, that the best me major issue I found this book is the cover. I don’t feel like it matches the tone of the book at all, and I almost passed this one up because the cover looked so boring. But, I’m so glad I didn’t, because this was such a delightful romp of a murder mystery!

A sleepy coastal town is rocked when the body of a local conservationist is found floating in the slough. And Jack, the teenage kayak guide who found him, quickly becomes the prime suspect. To clear her name, her grandma Lana commits to investigating and solving the murder herself, and her mom Beth grudgingly agrees to help. The amateur sleuthing trio encounters danger, red herrings and a whole cast of suspicious characters along their way to unmasking the true killer. I can honestly say I couldn’t figure out the ending until the very last minute! I loved the short chapters, made it easy to read in short little bites when I only had a few minutes. The middle 1/3 lagged just a little bit, but I was still engaged with the plot!

thank you to Net galley and Harper Collins for a copy of this ARC!

What happens when you merge Gilmore Girls with a murder mystery?

It was an absolute pleasure to read Nina Simon's MOTHER-DAUGHTER MURDER NIGHT, a murder mystery in which three generations of women work together to solve a puzzling death.

There's Lana Rubicon, a real estate mogul who prefers high rises and martinis to the cancer treatment she's forced to endure. Then there's her daughter, Beth, who takes in her obstinate mother for the duration of her treatment. Beth's teenaged daughter, the young but independent Jack, rounds out the trio. When Jack finds a body while kayaking, and Lana herself has spotted a curious midnight incident while bedridden, the three women work through their differences to solve the case.

I'd call this a "cozy adjacent" murder mystery. Not quite a traditional cozy mystery, but it does have a cozy feel. Set in a small, coastal town, the story is as much a mystery as an exploration of female relationships. If you normally read women's fiction, you'd also enjoy this one. And if you love the mother-daughter dynamics of Gilmore Girls, you'll find plenty to enjoy here.

As for the mystery, it wasn't my favorite—I didn't find it particularly complex, or the reveal surprising. But I did enjoy the character growth, the non-mystery plot, and the setting in Northern California.

I was drawn to the premise of this book and absolutely love the backstory behind what inspired the author to write it. There is actually a mother, daughter, and a granddaughter involved in the story which could have been wonderful. However, I was expecting (and hoping for) a lighter, fun mystery. The book is well-written, but I was disappointed there was so much conflict between the characters instead of them all working as a team. However, I think the ending is great and closes the book on a positive note. I would rate the book 3.5 stars.

I received an advance copy of this ebook from William Morrow and Scene of the Crime, but my review is voluntary and unbiased.