11/15/2021
Nina Simon (ninakswrites on QT) has signed with agent Stefanie Lieberman of Janklow & Nesbit Associates.
Dear AGENT,
Nothing brings a family together like a murder next door.
Lana Rubicon (62), a hard-charging LA businesswoman, is stuck in her daughter Meg's dumpy house by a river, counting otters and hoping boredom won't kill her before the cancer does. Then, Lana's teen granddaughter Jack paddles into a dead naturalist floating in the river. A neighboring rancher—a patient of Meg's—dies the next day.
Jack becomes a suspect. Meg is a mother on edge. Meg wants Lana to stay in bed, but Lana has bigger ambitions: to pull on her wig, find the true murderer, protect her family, and prove she still has power.
Lana uses her big-city chutzpah to confront suave environmentalists, skirt-chasing kayakers, illegal pot growers, and high-society matrons. With Jack's help--and despite Meg's warnings--Lana uncovers a web of lies and violent feuds over who owns land, how it's used, and how many acres are worth killing for.
THE LIFE JACKET (85,000 words) is a mystery that blends the humor of The Thursday Murder Club, the small-town atmosphere of Louise Penny's Three Pines, and the female family dynamics of the Gilmore Girls. This debut novel is a standalone with series potential.
I am a former museum director and the author of two self-published nonfiction books, The Participatory Museum and The Art of Relevance, each of which has sold over 20,000 copies. I have given two TedX talks, keynoted over 300 conferences, and have 25,000 followers on Twitter. I've written mixed-media mystery games on contract for CSI:NY and the International Spy Museum. When not writing, I love to cook, hike, and paddleboard in the Monterey Bay.
Thank you for your consideration,
Nina Simon