From the bestselling author of the Truly Devious books, Maureen Johnson, comes a new stand-alone YA about a teen who uncovers a mystery while working as a tour guide on an island and must solve it before history repeats itself.
The fire wasn’t Marlowe Wexler’s fault. Dates should be hot, but not hot enough to warrant literal firefighters. Akilah, the girl Marlowe has been in love with for years, will never go out with her again. No one dates an accidental arsonist.
With her house-sitting career up in flames, it seems the universe owes Marlowe a new summer job, and that’s how she ends up at Morning House, a mansion built on an island in the 1920s and abandoned shortly thereafter. It’s easy enough, giving tours. Low risk of fire. High chance of getting bored talking about stained glass and nut cutlets and Prohibition.
Oh, and the deaths. Did anyone mention the deaths?
- Title: Death at Morning House
- Author: Maureen Johnson
- Publisher: HarperTeen
- Publication Date: August 6, 20214
- Genre: Mystery/Thriller
- Source: Digital ARC via Netgalley
- Targeted Age Range: YA
- Content Warnings: Death, murder, child death, fire, vomit, vaping, underaged drinking, drowning, mentions of drunk driving, support of eugenics (challenged), blood, physical violence, descriptions of dead bodies, drugging, mentions of suicide, cheating (not main character)
- Rating: ★★★★
After the release of the first Truly Devious book in 2018, Maureen Johnson quickly became one of my favorite YA authors. I always look forward to a new book in the Truly Devious series, and though we’re eagerly awaiting the 6th book, I was so excited to read a brand new story from Johnson.
I loved how different this felt to Truly Devious. Yes, there are similarities — a young female protagonist and a historical mystery that she solves, but that’s where the similarities end. The thing that caught my attention right away was how different our protagonist, Marlowe, was to the protagonist of Truly Devious, Stevie. Marlowe, God bless her, is a little bit of a mess and I loved her for it. She could be very self-deprecating, but not overly so that it annoyed me, and I found her very real.
I loved the comedy in this book. Johnson is really great at subtle and sarcastic humor, which is very much up my alley and the kind of humor that I enjoy in general, so there were a lot of moments during this book that made me chuckle and say “mood” throughout the book. There was a great balance of mystery and humor to keep the reader engaged as the story goes on.
Though the house wasn’t actually haunted, the way that people spoke about Morning House made it seem like it was; it felt like it had real personality and like it was a character rather than a location, and I loved that. There was so much history in that house and mystery surrounding it, I found it absolutely fascinating. I loved the isolated atmosphere — we know I love a locked room mystery, so I was really glad to see that involved in this story. There was such an uneasiness within Morning House that, aside from the deaths that took place there in the 30s, was definitely influenced by the home being isolated on an island. I just loved the vibe.
Something that Johnson does so well is compelling dual timelines. I’ve always loved how she flows between the present and the past — I would actually love a historical mystery novel from her, as I think she comes up with super interesting plots for the historical cases in her books. Both timelines are interesting with compelling characters and she’s so good at weaving together the reveals and twists of both timelines, and drawing parallels between the past and the present.
The Ralston family was so incredibly interesting to me, and while I loved the back and forth timeline, I couldn’t read a whole book about them. The dynamics of that family were absolutely fascinating, and you just knew something wasn’t right there. I loved reading the chapters from the POVs of the Ralston Children and the way that the story of the family unfolded.
Something I found interesting is that I had lots more theories and curiosity regarding the mystery around the Ralston family than I did the current timeline’s mystery. That’s not to say that I didn’t have my theories for what Marlowe and the other teens at Morning House were going through, but I had super strong theories regarding the deaths of the Ralston children. While the culprits changed a few times throughout the book (that I did end up being wrong about), the motive didn’t change, and that was the thing I was right about. Johnson did such a great job of giving subtle clues to the reader throughout the story; I found myself guessing the motive and saying to myself “No, no, that’s so horrible” and although I saw it coming, the reveal was not any less heartbreaking.
Johnson once again delivered on a fast-paced, well executed and smart YA mystery. If you’ve enjoyed her previous works, I think you’ll definitely enjoy this one as well!
Links for Death at Morning House: Goodreads | TheStoryGraph | Bookshop
Maureen Johnson is the #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of several YA novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, Suite Scarlett, The Name of the Star, and Truly Devious. She has also done collaborative works, such as Let It Snow with John Green and Lauren Myracle (now on Netflix), and several works in the Shadowhunter universe with Cassandra Clare. Her work has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Buzzfeed, and The Guardian, and she has also served as a scriptwriter for EA Games. She has an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and lives in New York City.
