Mother Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon

First off - great title.

I think if you are either a mother or a daughter and you have any kind of positive relationship with your mother or daughter you are going to be interested in a book with this title. I certainly know I was.

I actually picked this as a title for a book club that I am in. This book club is primarily women and as such everyone there is comfortable with the mother/daughter vibe so it was an easy sell.

That’s actually how I would describe this book. An easy sell. The characters (three generations of women) are strongly written and interesting. They all have well developed personalities and their relationships are complex without leaning too hard into the tropes. They also - have a lot going on. I loved that. It wasn’t too much and it made it feel real. Example: the matriarch of the family Lana is dealing with cancer, what that has meant for her career, her relationship with her daughter who she launched at a very young age due to an unexpected pregnancy, as well as where she finds power at this stage in her life. That is a lot. I ate it up. I don’t want to ruin the whole book but the daughter, Beth, and the granddaughter Jack also are full characters. Sometimes that bogs down a narrative, but Simon really folded it all in nicely.

With such round juicy characters the actual murder investigation itself seemed kinda secondary and low stakes. I am not primary a thriller reader but I don’t know that I would call this a thriller? Maybe just a mystery? I learned recently that to be categorized as a thriller the author has to be looking for strong emotional reactions. This wasn’t that. It’s wasn’t exactly cozy either…just a solidly written murder mystery.

Long and the short of it: An easy sell.