KRML Book Review | Nina Simon | William Morrow, 2026
There are few experiences more likely to test the bonds of sisterhood than spending a week together in a small rubber raft, hurtling through the Grand Canyon with a collection of strangers.
Unless, of course, one of those strangers is a murderer.
Welcome to My Sister Is Going to Kill Me, the latest mystery from Santa Cruz Mountains author Nina Simon, who apparently believes family vacations aren’t sufficiently stressful without adding a corpse.
Sisters, Suspects, and Whitewater
Meet Liv and Mandy Chisholm.
Liv is organized, responsible, and the sort of person who probably alphabetizes her emergency supplies. Mandy is spontaneous, exuberant, and apparently considers a detailed itinerary a violation of her constitutional rights.
Their annual sister trip takes them whitewater rafting through the Grand Canyon, where breathtaking scenery, treacherous rapids, and the discovery of a murderer quickly transform a bonding exercise into something considerably less relaxing.
Without revealing the twists, let’s just say the Colorado River isn’t the only thing running dangerously fast.
What makes Simon’s storytelling enjoyable isn’t simply the mystery. It’s the gloriously imperfect relationship between two women who love each other deeply but occasionally struggle to remember why.
The Grand Canyon is more than a postcard backdrop. Its isolation, beauty, and danger give the story an adventurous energy that makes this something of a wilderness escape — with considerably more suspicious behavior.
Simon doesn’t follow the rigid, clue-by-clue architecture of a traditional whodunit. Her storytelling takes a more freewheeling route, allowing the sisters’ complicated relationship, the spectacular setting, and the occasional detour into family absurdity to share the spotlight with the mystery itself.
At times, I found myself wishing a few of the secondary characters had been given more room to develop. Some are intriguing enough that you want to spend a little longer getting to know them. But that’s a modest complaint about an otherwise thoroughly enjoyable adventure.
From NASA to the International Spy Museum to Murder Mysteries
Nina Simon’s own story might be nearly as interesting as her fiction.
Before becoming a bestselling novelist, she worked as a NASA engineer, slam poet, game designer, museum director, and nonprofit executive.
Among her more unusual jobs? Working at Washington, D.C.’s International Spy Museum, where she helped create interactive experiences, including Operation Spy, an immersive adventure in which visitors could play secret agent.
Which raises a reasonable question: if you’ve spent years teaching ordinary citizens how to be spies, isn’t writing murder mysteries the natural next career move?
Closer to home, Simon served as executive director of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, earning recognition for making cultural institutions more accessible, participatory, and welcoming.
Her transition to fiction came under difficult circumstances. When her mother became seriously ill in 2020, Simon stepped away from nonprofit leadership to help care for her. The two shared a love of mysteries, and writing one became a way to connect during a challenging time.
The result was Mother-Daughter Murder Night, a New York Times bestseller and Reese’s Book Club selection, set against the familiar marshes and waterways of Monterey Bay.
Her latest novel was inspired by an actual Grand Canyon rafting trip with her own sister, Morgan.
Thankfully, their real-life adventure appears to have involved considerably less murder.
The KRML Verdict
My Sister Is Going to Kill Me is a lively, unconventional blend of outdoor adventure, family dysfunction, humor, and murder mystery.
Readers expecting a tightly regimented detective puzzle might find its narrative approach a bit surprising. But those willing to follow Simon down a less predictable river will be rewarded with spirited characters, wonderful humor, and a story about the sometimes exasperating, ultimately enduring bonds of sisterhood.
And there’s something particularly satisfying about knowing the author lives just up the road in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Recommended for: Mystery lovers, armchair adventurers, anyone with a complicated sibling relationship, and people who believe the best family vacations are the ones everyone survives.
Coming Soon to KRML
We’re delighted that Nina Simon will be joining us soon at the KRML Listeners’ Lounge in Monterey and as a featured guest on Your Life, Your Playlist.
We’ll be talking about murder mysteries, the peculiar business of inventing fictional crimes, her remarkable journey from NASA to the International Spy Museum to bestselling novelist — and, of course, the music that provides the soundtrack to her life.
We’ll announce dates and details shortly.
In the meantime, read the book. We’ll do our best not to interrogate Nina too aggressively. Although someone who once worked at the Spy Museum probably knows how to handle herself.
KRML 94.7 FM — Celebrating the books, music, people, and wonderfully unpredictable characters of Monterey Bay.