I Enjoyed the Book, but I Wanted to Like It More
When I figure heard about Mother-Daughter Murder Night, I knew I had to get a copy and read it. The story behind the book was compelling, and the premise sounded like fun. Sadly, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be.
The backstory of this book really is part of the story. Nina Simon started working on the manuscript when her mother was diagnosed with cancer. The story became the distraction that pulled both of them through the surgery and the treatments. I love that the two of them found something like this to help them cope with the dark days. And it does shed some light on the set up for this book.
You see, when we first meet Lana Rubicon, the Los Angeles based real estate mogul has just been diagnosed with cancer. And so, she reaches out to her daughter, Beth, who is a nurse at a rehabilitation center in a town in the central coast of California. Soon, Lana is living with Beth and Beth’s daughter, Jacqueline, aka Jack.
Lana and Beth have a strained relationship, and all of this isn’t helping them. But things change when Jack finds a dead body. Jack, while only fifteen, is a guide for a local kayak company, and her Sunday morning tour ends when a member of a group finds a body floating on the slough where they’ve been paddling. The police seem to think that Jack knows more than she is telling, and Lana jumps in to solve the case. Is this the distraction they need? Can they solve the case?
I know we say we shouldn’t judge a book from the cover or title, but the fact is, we do. And, in this case, I was expecting something a little on the comedic side. It quickly became apparent that this wasn’t going to be the case. Instead, we get a serious look at family relationships combined with a murder mystery. Oh yeah, and there’s cancer, too.
In fact, the murder was a little late to get going as we saw Lana’s initial diagnosis and then caught up a few months later. Once the murder is introduced, I felt the plot is pretty well balanced. We have several different things going on, but I never felt the murder took a back seat to the other storylines. It just took us a bit longer to get there than in the books I typically read. I did pick out the killer pretty early, but I was still entertained as I read, and I had to see if I was right and what the motive was.
I already said the book was pretty serious tonally. Overall, I would describe it mostly as traditional. It’s a little hard around the edges to be a cozy. It’s definitely more laid back than a thriller. Keep that in mind as you read.
Over the course of the series, we get scenes in the third person point of view of all three of the women in the Rubicon family. However, we spend most of our time in Lana’s point of view, which makes sense. She is the one driving the story the most, no matter which storyline we are talking about. That was a problem for me since she has a lot of hard edges on her. Eventually, I did grow to like her, but it took a while. I actually sympathized with Beth quite a lot as a result. And I really did like Jack.
Now hear me out on what I am going to say next. I felt the book had a misandrist bent to it. Very few of the male characters come off in a positive manner. Now, I get that this is a mystery and we are supposed to distrust the characters. This goes beyond that. Part of it is definitely Lana’s edge toward anyone who stands in her way and her dismissive attitude toward others. But some of the men in this book are just awful. That turned my stomach as well.
And yet, there was something about the book that kept drawing me in. I would get caught up in the world and the story that was being spun.
So, I’m not sorry I read Mother-Daughter Murder Night. I do wish it had been a stronger debut, however, and I will be hesitant to read any more books by this author.
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