*Summary and Spoilers*
Main Characters:
Lana Rubicon: Grandmother and real-estate mogul who had to give up her fancy life and career when she was diagnoses with stage 4 cancer
Beth Rubicon: Daughter and nurse at assisted living facility who is close to her daughter but has a difficult relationship with her mother
Jack Rubicon: Daughter and 15 year old who works as a tour guide for the Kayak Shack and is very knowledgeable about life on the water
Deceased:
Ricardo Cruz: Worked for Victor Morales on land trusts
Hal Rhoads: Owned a large ranch and was a patient of Beth’s
Suspects:
Paul Hanley: Jack’s boss and owner of the Kayak Shack
Victor Morales: Works on the land trusts with Ricardo Cruz
Martin Rhoads: Hal’s son who will inherit part of the ranch
Dianna Whitaker: Hal’s daughter who will inherit part of the ranch
Why you should read or listen:
If you like cozy mysteries, then I recommend reading or listening to this book. It was an easy book to listen to but still keeps you engaged with some twists and turns and very enjoyable characters. The three women have complex relationships and unique personalities. You don't really understand the family dynamics between the Rhoads family and the Rubicon women unless to read the whole thing. I listened to this book, narrated by Jane Oppenheimer. Her voice was the perfect fit, especially for Lana.
But if you don't have time or need a refresher, continue reading!
Quick & Dirty Summary:
*Contains Spoilers*
Lana, Beth, and Jack investigate the murder of Ricardo Cruz. They discover that Ricardo Cruz and Hal Rhoads were murdered by Martin Rhoads due to jealousy and greed.
Complete Summary:
At 2am Saturday, Feb 4, Lana can’t sleep. She hasn’t been sleeping well since she moved in with her daughter and started cancer treatments. She uses her binoculars to look out the window for wildlife but instead, sees a person in a large coat pushing a wheelbarrow. She can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman, but she hears them dump something into the water.
On Sunday, Feb 5, Jack takes a group of tourists out on a tour of the slough. On the tour, a boy and his father yell to Jack. Jack kayaks over to see what the problem is. In the water, there is a body facedown wearing a Kayak Shack life jacket. Jack jumps in and drags the body to land. She is about to do CPR but checks for a pulse and realizes it is too late. Jack calls for the Coast Guard and returns everyone on the tour back to the Kayak Shack
The next day, after school, two detectives come to question Jack about the body. They inform her that the man found dead was Ricardo Cruz. He was supposed to be on her Saturday evening tour. Jack tells the detectives that he was not on the tour; he never showed up. The detectives explain that they have already interviewed someone from her Saturday evening cruise and know that everyone was drunk and out of hand. They accuse her of getting drunk as well and not being able to know if Ricardo was there or not. Lana interrupts the interrogation and tells the detectives about the person she saw at 2am Saturday morning. The detectives dismiss Lana and make it clear that Jack is a suspect.
Lana makes it her mission to find out what happened to Ricardo and clear her granddaughter’s name. She meets up with Jack’s boss, Paul, and sits in on an interview with him and the detectives. Paul claims to have an alibi, but Lana doesn’t trust him. Then Lana attends a wake for Hal Rhoads, a rancher who was Beth’s patient. At the wake, she learns from Victor Morales that Ricardo was working with Hal Rhoads to turn the ranch into a protected wildlife zone. Jack finds a Kayak Shack kayak and life jacket in a barn on Rhoads’ ranch.
Jack returns to work and takes Detective Ramirez out on a tour with her. The detective reveals that Jack is no longer a suspect because Ricardo was killed sometime on Friday and his body was in the water for 24 -40 hours. Detective Ramirez makes the Kayak Shack empty their first aid kits and a Maglite is missing from one of the kits.
There is a land battle brewing over Hal Rhoads’ ranch, now that he is dead. There was never an autopsy on Hal because he was older and died in his sleep, but Lana thinks he might not have died from natural causes. Lana believes that the death of Hal Rhoads and Ricardo Cruz are connected. The land trust, where Ricardo worked, owns land east of the ranch.
Beth meets up with Martin Rhoads. They chat about their lives and Martin’s relationship with his dad. Martin tells Beth that the ranch will now go to him and his sister, Dianna Whitaker. He also explains that Paul rents a small piece of land on the ranch to “grow strawberries”. Paul gave Hal the kayak as a down payment for the land.
Lana has a meeting with Dianna Whitaker to discuss the ranch. Dianna wants to keep the ranch and turn it into a wellness retreat, but her brother wants to sell it. Dianna is worried that if she and Martin don’t come to an agreement, the ranch with go to Victor Morales and the land trust. Hal signed a letter agreeing to leave the ranch to the land trust before he died.
Next, Lana meets with Victor Morales at the land trust offices. Victor explains that Hal was in talks with Ricardo about leaving the ranch to the land trust. Victor gives Lana access to Ricardo’s binder of information and leaves her to look through it. While looking over the binders, the fire alarm goes off. Lana tries to get out of the building but is locked in the room. Thanks to her Jimmy Choos, she is able to escape out the window and get to a firefighter before passing out.
Lana recovers just in time for Jack and her paddle board to go missing. Beth and Lana go down to the marina to look for Jack. Paul floats up in a kayak with a large black duffle bag and a white cooler. He makes a sketchy call to someone asking them to pick up the cooler. Then he offers to take Beth and Lana out on his motorboat to look for Jack. They find Jack and her paddleboard. When the three women return to the house, Jack tells them she saw someone digging a large hole. When the person kayaked away, she followed them. She couldn’t see them, but they had a large black duffle bag and a white box, possibly a cooler. Lana thinks Jack was following Paul.
The detectives take Jack to the Kayak Shack to help them identify if anything is unusual or missing. Jack points out a bike that is hidden under life jackets and explains that it does not belong to anyone at work, but she saw it outside the Kayak Shack before her shift on Sat, Feb 4. Jack agrees to contact Detective Ramirez if she or her grandma discover anything else.
Lana does some snooping and discovers that Ricardo and Hal were going to start a business to help low-income families set up farms. She also learns that Dianna and Ricardo were meeting up at the ranch every Wednesday. Gabby, from the land trust, admits that she heard Victor and Ricardo arguing on the Thursday before the murder and Ricardo left the land trust in the direction of the ranch and Dianna. That was the last time he was ever at work.
The detectives believe that Paul murdered Ricardo Cruz, but Lana doesn’t agree. She finds Paul and his friend in the yacht club in a large grow room. Paul admits that he was growing pot on Hal Rhoads’ property and was using his kayak and the missing Maglight to relocate all of the pot to the yacht club at night. He did not kill Ricardo but doesn't want to get turned into the police for growing pot without a license, so he agrees to help Lana.
Lana, Beth, and Jack plan to meet Dianna and Martin at the ranch for dinner. Lana has Paul wait in her trunk and be ready to jump out and help when she confronts the murderer. Lana thinks Dianna was having an affair with Ricardo and she killed him because he betrayed her by going into business with her dad.
After the meal at the ranch, Lana goes out to the barn to find Jack. They discover a couple of clues that point to Martin being the murderer. When Dianna, Beth, and Martin walk out to the barn, Lana confronts him about being the murderer. She continues to push until Martin hits her and she falls to the floor.
The ending
Martin admits to killing Ricardo. Ricardo moved into the ranch after Martin’s mom and Ricardo’s dad died in a fire many years ago. His whole life, Ricardo was the golden child at the ranch and Martin wasn’t good enough. When Martin realized that his dad was making plans with Ricardo for the future of the ranch, he killed Ricardo. Then he went to the assisted living home to confront his dad about the future of the ranch and killed him too.
In the barn, Martin pours gas all over and pulls out a gun and a lighter. Jack lifts a kayak and hits Martin with it. The gun in his hand goes off and the barn starts going up in flames. Detective Ramirez saves them with a fire extinguisher and arrests Martin. Martin admits to killing Ricardo and his father.
In the end, Dianna plans to keep the ranch and convert it into a hybrid farm/ wellness resort. Lana gets good news from the doctors and is cleared to return to LA, but she decides to stay with her girls instead. She moves into the garage and gets a job as a land consultant. Detective Ramirez is recognized for her hard work and given a promotion.
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