Review By Veronica
Mother-Daughter Murder Night is an addictive whodunit mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.
Favourite Quote:
“We don’t care for your tone, Detective,” Lana said. “A man drowned. Jack found him. It was a tragic accident. That’s what happened.”
Jack breathed in her grandma’s precise, steady words. She hoped it was enough.
The detective matched Lana in tone, speaking slowly, as if to a child.
“All due respect, ma’am.” He made the word sound like an insult. “What happened to Ricardo Cruz was no accident.”
Goodreads Synopsis:
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.
I love a good “whodunit” mystery book, and when I heard that this book is a mystery but with a Gilmore Girls twist, I might have rushed out to the books store to pick it up. Overall, I enjoy this book, but I have to say that the Gilmore Girl vibes are lacking, which was a bit of a disappointment for me. The only correlation between this book and Gilmore Girls is that both center around three generations of remarkable women. I was hoping for more fast-talking, witty characters (think Lorelai Gilmore), but there aren’t any in this book.
Besides the lack of Gilmore Girl vibes, this book is excellent. It has a strong mystery component that kept me guessing to the very end. This book starts a little slow; it took me a few chapters to get into it. But once things start to unfold, that pace slowly starts to pick up until you feel like you are moving at a break-neck pace, and you find yourself at the edge of your seat because you need to know what will happen next. Elkhorn Slough (the small town where this story takes place) feels like a character in its own right. Nina breathes so much life into the setting, and it plays such an important part in the mystery and helps to move the story along. I loved exploring this remote community and learning about the marshes, rivers, and aquatic life.
The characters in this book are great mystery characters. This story centers around the Rubicon women. There is Lana, a high-power real-estate agent in LA; Beth (her daughter), a nurse in a retirement home; and Jack (Lana’s granddaughter), a high school student. These three women are brought back together when Lana has a health scare. Lana feels like she is going crazy, being stuck in this small town with nothing to do. That is until Jack stumbles upon a dead body and quickly finds herself as a suspect in the murder investigation. The story is told from Lana, Beth, and Jack’s POVs, which I loved. Each character is so different, and I loved watching them react to various situations they found themselves in. In particular, I really loved Lana and Jack; their characters were strongest in this story. They both had this knack and passion for trying to solve this murder mystery that they found themselves in the middle of. It was fascinating watching them work together.
Mother-Daughter Murder Night is a fun and addictive murder mystery that is sure to keep you up until the wee hours of the morning.
