SEASIDE, CA— Author Nina Simon set her “cozy” crime novel, Mother-Daughter Murder Night, in Elkhorn Slough, a 7-mile-long tidal slough and estuary on Monterey Bay near Moss Landing. Her debut novel spent two months on the New York Times bestseller list, was picked up by the Reese Witherspoon Book Club, and was selected "best book of 2023" by Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Simon is working on another murder mystery.
“They have always been my go-to for comfort,” she says about crime books. “It’s kind of funny to think of warmth and murder together, but I like murder mysteries that have warmth and humanity to them.”
Simon has written two nonfiction books about the museum industry. She has been a voracious murder mystery reader, but she never aspired to pen one herself. Mother-Daughter Murder Night started in 2020 as a comfort project, after Simon’s mom, Sarina Simon – who introduced her to the pleasures of the genre – was diagnosed with cancer. While rereading together some favorite books, Simon asked her: “What if I try to write a murder mystery with someone like you as the lead detective?”
Simon has worn many hats: NASA engineer, slam poet, game designer, museum director, nonprofit CEO and an art activist. Born in Los Angeles, she now lives off the grid in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Simon will discuss her novel and the art of writing in general. She will talk about North Monterey County as a setting for her stories. “That area, from Salinas to Moss Landing, is such an interesting interaction of the rural and the natural, urban and man-made,” Simon says. We will talk about the art of writing – fiction and nonfiction, but perhaps also about the book she is working on now.