Death at Morning House is a chilling and atmospheric mystery that showcases Maureen Johnson’s signature blend of suspense and sharp storytelling. The eerie setting and slow-building tension kept me hooked, and the twists were well-executed. While the pacing lagged in a few spots, the intriguing characters and unsettling mood made up for it. It’s not my favorite of her works, but it’s still an engaging read with plenty of eerie charm. Fans of Johnson’s mysteries will find plenty to enjoy!

After Marlowe experiences an unfortunate fire while house-sitting, she goes on search of a summer job. Morning House is full of mysteries and interesting characters. It's an old 1920s mansion on an island and they give tours. The back story is pretty interesting dealing with the family who lived there and their mysterious deaths. When people start cooking up missing and dead, Marlowe knows she signed up for way more than she bargained.

This book was insane. The amount of times I thought I knew what was going on baffled me. I'd be like, "ohh, okay, yeah" and then the next chapter starts and I immediately was like "oh, no, I don't understand what's happening." I will definitely be looking forward to more of the authors work.

This is a fun standalone mystery from a great YA mystery writer. I loved the setting of the old, beautiful but creepy house, and the slow reveal of what happened in the past as well as in the future worked well. The writing is sharp too; it made me laugh out loud a couple of times. All the characters are fun and the main character in particular is really relatable to anyone who is a teen or who remembers their teenage years.

I love a good Maureen Johnson book! This one did not disappoint! It was suspenseful and had all the twists and turns!

I flew through this one in just a couple of days, which is a rarity for me—especially when the book is nearly 400 pages long! I really enjoyed Marlowe’s perspective, the mix of present and past timeline’s were well done, the mysteries were satisfying and the thought process the characters went through trying to solve them was believable. I also really liked Johnson’s descriptions, there were a lot of unusual metaphors and her humor really landed with me. The driving mystery in the present timeline doesn’t kick off until the 50% mark. From that point the pace just skyrockets, each chapter is faster than the last.

After the Devious series and its wonderful characters I was unsure if this new group would be as good. Maureen did it and now there are two great groups of young detectives out there for us all to follow. This book was a wonderful read.

This book was told past and present. Present is a house with a mysterious past and the present is a group of young people working as tour guides. The main character is Marlowe Wexler and I'm sure given the opportunity Marlowe could give Stevie Bell a run for her money on solving anything.

I loved all the characters both past and present and the story held my interest from the first page to the last. Maureen again has constructed a strong and diverse cast that I look forward to reading more of in the future.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Teen for the advanced E-copy in exchange for my honest reviews.

I really like that this story started with such a bang. The immediate fire at the house she's house-sitting with her crush is something that is unforgettable. Also, the idea of being basically trapped on an island with probably someone who is a murderer is such a classic story. I really enjoyed it and have recommended it to those looking for a solid mystery.

Maureen Johnson does not disappoint! This was another great book and she is now on my always-read list! I can't wait to read her next book! This was a wild ride and I was totally here for it.

#DeathatMorningHouse
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Maureen Johnson is an incredible mystery writer. I loved every book I have read of theirs and I can't wait to read the next one.

To be honest I found myself a little disappointed by this book. I typically love Maureen Johnson (I loved truly devious) but this one fell flat for me. I was riddled with second hand embarrassment and felt like the book really dragged on when it didn’t need to. I didn’t hate it by any means, but I didn’t love it.

Hi Again!

I am a huge Maureen Johnson fan. I have read nearly all of their books, and the Truly Devious series is one of my top favorite reads of all time. So anytime Maureen puts out a new mystery book you can bet I need it. I pre-order it, and constantly try to read stuff about it online. If you have never read any of the Truly Devious series, go and do that right now. So when I heard about Death at Morning House, I already knew I was in. This is another mystery series but not with our beloved Stevie and crew. However, I was still more than willing to give it a try. Before we dive into the review I would like to give a massive thank you for the ARC copy of this book, in exchange for my honest opinions. I absolutely devoured this book and I am more than ready for another mystery!

SPOILERS AHEAD

Marlowe lives with her parents and is a typical high schooler for the most part. She attends school, has a part-time job, and looks after a nearby family friend’s home when they are in the city and working, she also happens to have a crush. Marlowe decides to take a big leap and ask her crush out. Marlowe decides to take her crush to the house she looks after. She is sure it will be fine and they will not be doing anything bad, illegal or that would get you in trouble. Marlowe sets the house up and even lights a candle. However, this candle backfires on Marlowe as it starts a fire that burns down the whole house and metaphorically Marlowe’s life with it. Now her parents are not happy with her, her crush is not really even speaking to her and she is going to have to go work at Morning House for the summer (which is a bit of a ways away from home). Now Marlowe is headed to work there for the summer where she knows no one including the other kids her age working there. She has researched the place and the original owning family as well as the misfortunes that befell them. Marlowe also learned that they were an odd family with a strict schedule. The father believed heavily in eugenics and had adopted 6 children, he brought them here to his home and raised them with the help of his sister.

Eventually, the children would get older and he would send them to a nice school where the children would learn that the rest of the world is much different than they are. Their father also marries a younger woman and they have 1 child together, who is a complete nightmare. They all hate him but no one will admit it to their father or aunt. He is clearly the favorite and acts like a very spoiled brat. One day, the family has a day that is very out of routine for them, and the youngest child is found dead. Shortly after one of the older sisters jumped off her balcony. This does not seem like a coincidence but these deaths were a long time ago.

Now the house is only open for the summer and people can come for tours. After this summer a new owner will be coming to take over the home and it will never be the same again. Once Marlowe arrives and gets settled in things quickly tip upside down as she begins to learn more about her new co-workers, the adult on the island, and the large rift that has formed between everyone. Marlowe learns the rift was caused by the death of the other person who should have been here and that they were a friend of everyone and even had some romantic relationships within the group. Things are very up and down with the group but one morning the adult who invited Marlowe to the island and who was in charge goes missing. The police are called but there are no signs and a storm is brewing. Now Marlowe may or may not be trapped on the island with a murderer and the answers to what really happened to the family that originally owned the house.

I really enjoyed this mystery. I read through it pretty quickly (as I do with all of Maureen’s books) because I wanted to know the ending, I needed to know the ending. I had my thoughts and suspicions but I was definitely wrong. I really liked the professor and I was honestly surprised at their disappearance and death. I also enjoyed the setting change in this book, the island and the small town they would visit as well as the house. The playhouse they stay in felt like it had a weird murder whimsy to it and the whole thing helped set a great atmospheric vibe for the story. I am beyond excited for the next mystery by Maureen (and I really really still need more of Stevie’s story).

Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars (deserves many more)

***Thank you so much for the ARC copy in exchange for my honest opinions.

This wasn’t a book I planned to read in just two sittings. However, after continuing to tell myself “I’ll take a break after this chapter” and then not taking a break after the chapter, I finished it in a blur of twists and reveals that left me gasping.

Death at Morning House follows Marlowe Wexler, an average teenage girl with a years-long crush on Akilah, her ice cream parlor coworker. But all of Marlowe’s summer plans go sideways when she accidentally sets fire to the cottage she was house-sitting for family friends, which she was not supposed to be using for (literally) hot dates. All in a rush, her almost-girlfriend gets a new job and Marlowe loses hers after falling into a spiral thanks to the guilt over the burned-down cottage. The moping doesn’t last long, however, because one of her teachers gets her a job working as a tour guide at the famous Morning House, a mansion on an island estate built in the 1920s with a strange and deadly history.

At the estate, Marlowe meets the six other teenagers already working there, and she gets close with some of them while others hide themselves away. She learns all about the eccentric Philip Ralston and his family: the original owners of the estate before it was abandoned. The mansion is huge and mainly used for tours, though Dr. Henson, the professor employing Marlowe and the others to do the tours, lives in it while doing her research on the family. As Marlowe learns more about the estate and the other teens she’s working with, she finds out some things about the boy she’s replacing—things some of her fellow tour guides don’t want her to know. Her curiosity leads her to start investigating, and when someone goes missing, she can’t help but wonder if the cases are connected.

The second storyline follows Clara Ralston in 1932, the eldest of seven Ralston children during the days leading up to the first of many tragic deaths of her whole family, starting with her youngest brother Max, then her own later on the same day. The Ralston family are an intriguing bunch, and I really enjoyed the sections about them and the circumstances leading up to the collapse of their seemingly idyllic lifestyle. Their family is tight-knit, but dysfunctional in many ways, especially as Philip tries to mold his children’s views to match how he sees the world, including educating them on the “science” of eugenics. He sets tight schedules, prescribes strange diets, and forbids alcohol and sugar, so it’s no surprise that Clara and some of her siblings chafe against their father’s orders.

We learn early on who else in the Ralston family dies, the order of their deaths, and how. It’s all part of the Morning House tour. This knowledge makes it all the more interesting to find out exactly how the deaths came to be. They were written off in the news reports and history books as accidental or simply bad fortune. But were they really chance, or was foul play involved?

My absolute favourite part of any Maureen Johnson mystery is how she weaves together a compelling storyline from both the past and the present that parallel each other in multiple ways. The Morning House tour guides are a group of six friends, and one newcomer to them all (Marlowe). There were six adopted children in the Ralston family, plus Max, the odd one out as the only biological son. I thought this made really interesting dynamics between characters, and tied each period together despite two entirely different mysteries occurring in them.

As I said, I ate this up and barely even stopped to ponder who might have done it, so the ending was a thrilling rush of revelations and plot twists that made sense even though I didn’t predict them. While it’s got all the hallmarks of a good thriller—a missing person, general skulduggery, and many horrible deaths—the ending is sweet, to put a cherry on top of this captivating tale of extremely messy families, friendships, and friend-group love polygons. If you’re looking for a book to tie together the end of summer with the arrival of spooky season, give Death at Morning House a read!

Eternally grateful to read anything by the inimitable Maureen Johnson. I've been following her authorship for over a decade, and seeing the evolution of her writing and stories has been a damn delight. Death at Morning House is absolutely no aberration to that.

This book was honestly quite predictable. It was a bit fun still but not my favorite. It was nice to read between some heavier books.

I love the Truly Devious series and was hoping to love this book as well. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. I think a lot of the back and forth relationships/hook-ups felt too HBO series to me. Will still give check out other books by this author though as I've had significantly more hits than misses.

While I found Marlowe’s voice to be stiff at times, the point of views of the Ralatons and the mystery in present day was entertaining enough. Some of the clues were too-obviously planted, but I liked it anyway.

This is an interesting book - the mystery was interesting, the setting was interesting, and most of the characters were at least somewhat interesting. Except the main characters. Her two character traits seemed to be being gay and being a dumbass, and it was off-putting. I wanted a lot less romance and a lot more mystery and investigation here.

Another wonderful mystery from Maureen Johnson. This one didn't feel quite as cozy mystery as her Truly Devious series. In those she is actively looking for clues. In this one the clues just seem to be happened upon. I know this is going to be a very popular title.

Marlowe Wexler accidentally set a house on fire and lost her girlfriend. So when an unexpected job offer at an abandoned island estate comes her way, she takes it. She will join several friends as a tour guide at a historic home. The only problem is past murders. And there might be a few murders in the present day, too.
I really like the author's writing style! It's casual and funny. I would definitely read more of their books.
The story was interesting with plenty of twists, turns and red herrings. It wasn't as engaging as I hoped, though. Besides Marlowe, I wasn't invested in any of the other characters.
I liked the eugenics angle. In the end, manipulating genes did not provide the win the doctor father hoped and planned for.