Nina Simon’s ‘Mother-Daughter Murder Night’ is the September pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club
Quick Take
The new novel authored by Nina Simon, longtime director of the Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz — “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” — was selected as September’s Book of the Month on Tuesday by actor Reese Witherspoon and her Reese’s Book Club.
That roar you hear? Sounds like a rocket launch? That’s Nina Simon’s new career taking off.
On Tuesday, the new novel authored by the longtime director of the Museum of Art & History in Santa Cruz — “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” (Wm. Morrow) — was selected as September’s Book of the Month by actor Reese Witherspoon and her Reese’s Book Club.
The timing, at least for local fans, could not have been more auspicious. The new mystery novel landed in bookstores the same day that Witherspoon announced the pick, and Simon will kick off her book tour at her hometown bookstore Bookshop Santa Cruz the same evening.
How big a deal is this? For the last five years, Witherspoon has deftly positioned herself as the inheritor from Oprah Winfrey as the publishing industry’s celebrity queenmaker, with titles chosen by her book club regularly receiving a turbo boost on the bestseller charts.
On top of that, Witherspoon’s production company has optioned several titles chosen by Reese’s Book Club, including “Daisy Jones and the Six,” “Little Fires Everywhere,” “Tiny Beautiful Things” and “Where the Crawdads Sing.”
Simon said she was thrilled when she heard the news: “This was described by my editor as the Super Bowl of publishing,” said Simon. “So I feel incredibly, incredibly blessed and lucky.”
Quick Take
Nina Simon, former director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, put her life and nonprofit leadership on pause in...
Simon wrote her book after leaving her position at the MAH in 2019. While helping her mother convalesce from cancer treatments, she began writing a murder mystery as a way to entertain and distract her mom.
The book follows a murder mystery (set in Monterey County’s Elkhorn Slough) around three generations of a family including a powerful Southern California real-estate magnate named Lana Rubicon and her 15-year-old granddaughter Jack, who is accused of murder after she discovers a body floating in the slough.
“When I found out,” said Simon, “instantly, I was thinking about two things. I was thinking about my mom and our story. And I was also thinking about Elkhorn Slough and the Monterey Bay and what an awesome opportunity for us to share this beautiful place and this beautiful story with a whole lot more readers.”
Just hours before her Tuesday evening appearance at Bookshop, Simon was surfing the waves of congratulations she was receiving at the news. “I sort of think of it like … well, think about whatever your peak Facebook birthday experience was like in 2013 or something. That’s what it feels like.”
Simon, 42, still lives near Santa Cruz with her husband, housing activist Sibley Simon, and their daughter.
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