Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon

I have seen some odd things in mystery novels. Usually, these odd things are creative ways of killing people or highly original motives. Mother-Daughter Murder Night, by Nina Simon, is the first time I’ve ever seen a murder investigation become a form of family therapy. The deaths of two men turned out to do more to bring the Rubicon women together than pregnancy, cancer, or coming of age ever did.

Lana and Beth Rubicon have been keeping their distance from each other for years, ever since Beth became pregnant with her daughter Jack when Beth was a teenager. The two women have always had different values. For Lana, self-worth comes from being a cutthroat real estate developer. Beth, on the other hand, values simplicity over chasing money. One thing they ironically have in common is that each woman believes that she is right and that the other is wrong. When Lana is diagnosed with cancer, and cannot continue her career, she and Beth arrange for the older woman to move in with Beth and Jack.

Just as the emotional tension of having all three Rubicons in one house starts to inch towards the unbearable, a dead body is discovered on one of Jack’s kayak tours of the local slough. Lana’s spark comes back when one of the detectives on the case accuses Jack of somehow killing the man in a ludicrous interrogation in the Rubicon home. While Beth urges caution and wants to stay out of the case, Lana charges head in. Having something to do is the only thing that energizes her inbetween rounds of chemotherapy. And it turns out that it’s a good thing that Lana is digging into things, along with the intrepid Jack, because the local police can’t seem to make any headway.

Simon slips in some good twists that had me guessing who the real murderer was and, even though Lana’s tendency to steamroll over people put my back up more than once, I admired her ability to put together the disparate clues and solve the case. The solution to Mother-Daughter Murder Night was satisfying, if more harrowing than I expected for an amateur detective mystery. More satisfying, however, is the way that the Rubicon women learn to make room for each other, to forgive each other, and to finally heal their rifts.