There is a reason that Maureen Johnson is one of my favorite YA authors - she writes likeable and believable characters and her mysteries always surprise me. The twists and turns in this book are fresh and well thought out, and had me guessing all the way up until the end. Marlowe is such a quirky character, and her awkwardness is so relatable. I also really enjoyed the Goth love interest, Riki (hilarious and reminded me of 16-year-old me) and Van, the loveable stoner.This book has a smart and intricate plot, interesting and profound characters, and the pacing is so well done, it made it hard to put down!

Marlowe's life literally goes up in flames one night and finds herself working at the Morning House giving tours for the summer. The Morning House was built in the late 1920, and a unique family lived there. However, they were only there for a short time before 2 kids died. They quickly moved out and the house was abandoned. Now it is open for tours and there is Marlowe who finds out that the other people there are hiding secrets and a person goes missing.

This one is a dual timeline. We learn about the events that led up to the deaths at Morning House in the 1920s and then the characters in the present day are also uncovering some of the truth, too!

The family in this one was so strange I could not stop reading about them. I would check trigger warnings because things happen to kids in this one. Overall, a great read!

What a delight of a book. I really enjoyed the narrator, Marlowe, and the escapades that led up to her becoming a tour guide at Morning House. The majority of the story takes place in Alexandria Bay, where I spent a lot of my childhood summers, and it was a treat to spend more time there through this book. I think the resolution at the end came together a bit suddenly and quickly, but I had a great time along the way. Thank you to NetGalley and HarperTeen for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

i loved this book more than i thought i would! the dual timelines, from the Prohibition era in the U.S. to modern day, was so well done and wasn't at all difficult to keep up. the writing was easy to follow, and every single character had elements that made them stand out on their own. you could easily remember who each character was.

the main plot follows Marlowe as she navigates her summer after an accidental fire she caused while trying to impress a girl. the guilt and embarrassment she felt lead her to lose her job and end up working as a tour guide on an island where a large mansion sits. this mansion tells the secondary plot of the peculiar Ralston family: a wealthy doctor, his sister, his retired actress wife, five adopted kids, their biological child. they lived in this house during the Prohibition era along with their staff.

the interest in this mansion in modern day surrounds the mysterious deaths of two of the children and the way the family left their home immediately after, leaving it empty for several decades. for one summer only, the new owners of the island is allowing tours of the place under the watchful eye of Dr. Henson, who is writing a book about the Ralstons. Dr. Henson employs teens April, Van, Lianni, Tom, Riki, and then Marlowe to lead the tours.

secrets start to unfold around the group, causing Marlowe to wonder why she was really chosen and if she really belonged there. then something happens that creates chaos among the teens right before a big storm hits the island. now they have to navigate the storm outside and within. eventually, the chaos of the past and present reveals itself to Marlowe and Riki.

this book really hooked me in fast and took me on crazy rollercoaster ride. the revelations from past and present had my jaw on the floor, especially in the way they align. you knew it made sense why it happened, but can't believe that it happened the way it did. i just know i'll be rereading this in the future. and that's why it's 5 STARS for me! highly recommend.

thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins for allowing me to read this book. i received this book as an ARC and leave this review voluntarily.

Initially, I was so excited by this book in the hopes that it was next in the Truly Devious series. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it is a stand-alone mystery that held my attention from beginning to end. Marlowe is kind of a walking disaster after she accidentally burns down a house on her first date. After, she has a new job at Morning House where she meets a handful of other teens, who are all local, working there in different roles for the summer. The director/adult who helped bring Marlowe to this new job goes missing, and things begin to unravel at Morning House. It doesn't help that Morning House has an interesting history with two dead children and a father who was heavily into the eugenics movement. Teen readers will enjoy the mystery with this book, and the fact that it wraps up loose ends nicely.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
4.25/5
This books was such a fun read. It follows Marlowe, who after a horrible date that ended in a house fire, takes a job as a tour guide at Morning House. The house is known for its tragic history as the family who lived there previously had their four year old son die in a drowning accident, and their oldest daughter jump off the roof in grief. Not to mention the local tragic accident that happened during the past school year. The whole house and surround islands seemed clouded with mystery and death.
Throughout the whole book, Marlowe was such a fun narrator, and kept me interested despite a bit of a slow start. I enjoyed the dual timeline between the Morning House in the 30’s and modern day. I also loved that Marlowe was an openly lesbian character, where one of the main plot lines wasn’t about homophobia.
The mystery was interesting and I never really knew where it was going. I loved the whole aesthetic of old money during prohibition. The dialogue and narration had me laughing at several point.
I would recommend this book to people who loved We Were Liars and Umbrella Academy. So excited for this books official release!

honestly i have read several books by this author, but none have taken the cake like this one. the characters, and plot was sooo intriguing… and it was ya *a little predictable but so good* but it was not like her other ya books. i cannot explain it well without spoilers, so i shall return when the books are in the hands of everyone and not just the arc readers! thanks so much to the publisher and net galley for the opportunity to read this with an exchange of a review! definitely pick this mystery up for a spooky read this august or September

In a similar tone to her former series, Truly Devious, Johnson writes about a cold case from the 1920s intermixed with teens from today attempting to solve it. Marlow, the main character, needs a change of scenery, so she agrees to be a tour guide on an island for the summer. This requires her to live there with the other guides, in the Morning House, the mansion built in the 1920s for a rather quirky family. Marlow doesn’t know anything about what she is getting herself into, but she quickly realizes there is a lot of drama in the group–and a history of a few murders on the island. Highly recommended for anyone who likes a good murder mystery and especially those who enjoyed Truly Devious. Johnson delivers another mystery that will keep you guessing until the very end.

In 1932, tragedy struck the Ralston family when two of the seven Ralston children died in a single day. Seemingly cursed, the family continued to suffer through the years, ultimately abandoning its opulent home in the Thousand Islands region of New York. Nearly one hundred years later, a teen named Marlowe accidentally burns down a house on her first date with a longtime crush, and when she is given the chance to escape the judgmental eyes of her neighbors, she takes it. Marlowe finds herself working on the fated Ralston family estate, and it seems that whatever curse was following the Ralstons may not yet be finished.

This engaging young adult novel is well written and reads easily from the first pages. The narrative alternates between Marlowe’s voice in the first person and those of the Ralston siblings—in the third person—near the time of the first deaths. Because of this design, readers are able to piece together elements of the mystery alongside the characters, often knowing more than the protagonists themselves. While there are some predictable elements within the narrative, these pieces add a comfort and flow to the storytelling that make this book well suited to a casual summer read.

Much like other books by Maureen Johnson, each character has a unique voice and clear motives, which helps differentiate among them as the narrative progresses. Inclusions of diverse human experiences make the storytelling more robust than it might otherwise be, and these elements in the present day are starkly contrasted against the more conservative nature of the Ralston family. In both timelines, secrets simmer beneath the surface, and Marlowe ultimately becomes the ideal sleuth in her unfamiliar landscape. Brief chapters, a stream-of-consciousness storytelling style, and an engaging premise elevate the momentum of this novel. This is a strong addition to contemporary fiction collections for young adult readers.

Maureen Johnson does it again! As a huge fan of the Truly Devious series, I was looking forward to her new standalone mystery this summer. It's the perfect book for summer: mystery, summer camp vibes, Thousand Islands, and lots of suspicious characters. After an incident at home, Marlowe is whisked away to fill in as a tour guide for the summer at a mansion with a mysterious background in the Thousand Island area of NY. The book goes back and forth between the present and the 1930s when the original owners of the house lived there. It was a delectable read with tension slowly building until the climax. I loved it and highly recommend for a great summer read!

Thanks to NetGalley for the copy!

If you're a fan of the Truly Devious series, I think you'll enjoy Death at Morning House. It definitely has the same vibes.
Marlowe seems to have hit a patch of bad luck. After a first date goes up in flames, she takes a job giving tours at Morning House- the site of 2 deaths on 1932.
As Marlowe learns about the other teens and the professor working there, she starts to uncover puzzle pieces to a mystery.
I really enjoyed the characters and the story here. Lots of fun.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins for an early copy for review.

First I need to say that I was honored to receive an E-ARC for this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I absolutely loved this book. This was my first read by Maureen Johnson and it certainly won’t be my last. I’ve always gravitated towards books with historical mystery/suspense elements and this story absolutely delivers. I loved that there was dual time lines with the story telling, both equally pulled me in and made it hard to put the book down. I found myself saying “just one more chapter” but then I just kept turning the pages. Even though this book is historical mystery/suspense I really liked how Maureen wove in coming of age themes with the modern day main character. I found myself relating to their uncertainty as they navigated relationships bridging from adolescence to young adult. I found the suspense to be just enough that it was a compulsive read but not too much that I felt like I had to sleep with a light on. It was well balanced! Highly recommend this book if you want a quick paced spooky vibe read.

Marlowe is a very quirky teenager having a very bad summer. Cue her invitation to spend the summer working at the Morning House, an old, creepy murder house that has sat vacant since the 1920s. She’s a misfit amongst her coworkers but slowly works her way into the circle, sort of replacing a friend of the coworkers who had unexpectedly died earlier in the year.

The teens working at Morning House are overseen by Dr. Henson, an eccentric woman who seems to want nothing to do with overseeing them. She makes comments here and there about seemingly knowing things, evil things, that have happened. But when she disappears, who is responsible?

This novel was twisty and engaging the entire way through. Though it was off to a slow start, the story really picks up about halfway through and had me turning pages and refusing to stop reading til I was finished. Filled with cryptic clues, the eeriness of what happened in the very same house in the 1920s, and lots of drama, the story unfolds in a very interesting way. The author layers the stories, flashing between what is happening in Marlowe’s summer and what happened at Morning House in the 1920s, and three mysteries are solved over the course of the book.

What really happened to the two Ralston siblings in the 1920s? What happened between the coworkers after prom? And what happened to Dr. Hansen? You’ll uncover the answers to these mysteries and more.

I was given an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. For me, this book was easily 4-4.5 stars, overall an excellent read. I would definitely recommend this book for mystery/thriller readers and possibly even older young adult readers. It’s highly entertaining and definitely a page turner.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book!

1 Sentence Summary: It all started with a petrichor scented candle—Marlowe didn’t mean to burn down the house she was house-sitting, but now she needs to find a new summer job and ends up working as a tour guide for Morning House, an abandoned island mansion where two children died mysteriously in the 1920s and where the longer Marlowe stays, the more she becomes convinced that something isn’t right.

My Thoughts: Such a twisty, well written mystery! This is the first book I’ve read by Maureen Johnson, and it was so good. (I want to read Truly Devious now!)

The writing style was fantastic. I loved Marlowe and being inside her head. She was so awkward and relatable, and her inner monologue was so funny. The side characters were all pretty well developed too.

There were so many twists and turns and the plot was astonishing (in a good way). The book alternates between past and present, which I loved. It was like 2 mysteries in one! I was not expecting that ending, and the big reveal was so satisfying.

Also loved the sapphic representation. And the setting! It was so atmospheric with the islands and the river and the mansion. (I really want to visit the Thousand Islands now. I’ve never heard of it before reading this!)

Overall, a thrilling murder mystery with charming characters that will keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat!

Recommend to: fans of murder mysteries featuring islands, mansions, strange families, fires, and summer storms.

(Warnings: swearing; death)

I adore Maureen Johnson. She's one of my favorite authors of all time. I was a little wary of this book because it is not a Stevie Bell mystery, but, it turns out, I had no reason to worry. Marlowe is an excellent protagonist and this book was fun from cover to cover. Loved it!

P.S. - Maureen, please write another Stevie Bell book! I need it in my soul!

4.25 stars!! this book was so enjoyable and absolutely un-put-downable! marlowe and the rest of the cast of characters held my interest and ended up being characters i liked and generally wanted to know what happened next to them. both mysteries in the past and present were engaging and simple enough to follow along with. i had one of the mysteries mostly figured out around the middle of the book, but the other mystery and how they both connected came as a surprise to me! i have loved the truly devious series and think fans of the series will enjoy this new standalone novel from maureen johnson. marlowe and stevie are similar in all the best ways, but different enough characters to feel original. if this book became the first in the series, i wouldn’t be mad about it! just a thought maureen, haha!!

thanks so much to netgalley and harper collins children books/harperteen for the arc. all opinions and views expressed are my own.

Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson is a standalone YA murder mystery.
I wasn't a big fan of Marlowe Wexler, she came off as a little obsessive and moony in her relationship with Akilah. I get that first crush's can be rough but they went on one date. I get that the one date went terribly as he burned down a cabin but still, she's so brokenhearted over it that I found it annoying.
Looking to escape her embarrassment Marlowe takes a job at the Morning House on Ralston Island. The house and the murders that happened there are a tourist destination and a group of teenagers stay there every summer giving tours. They all treat Marlowe a little weird at first but that is because she replaced a friend of theirs who died last summer. The events of the summer coincide with the murders that happened in the house in the 1930's.
I loved reading about the Ralston family and their house. Mr. Ralston is into Eugenics and makes all six of his adopted children eat a vegetarian diet. I've read about that movement accidentally from an old juice book the whole movement was nuts. Clara as the oldest is trying her best to make her way in that family. All the kids are overachievers and doing pretty well until Max is born. Max is a spoiled brat and a possible future psychopath and is constantly trying the patience of the other sibling and the staff. That family's story of how it came apart was tragic and compelling.
The story is fast-paced and enjoyable and I write up there style-wise with Truly Devious. I think in general fans of Maureen Johnson's other series will also love this one although I prefer the slower pace of a series than a standalone. While I did not relate to any of the modern characters in this particular story, I did find the mystery compelling and was unable to put it down.
Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins Children Books/HarperTeen for the Arc. All opinions and views expressed are my own.

Marlowe Wexler is having a bad summer when a unique opportunity comes her way: escape her hometown for the next few months and become a tour guide at the newly opened Morning House, former summer home of the infamous Ralston family in the Thousand Islands. All was well with the wealthy, albeit strange Ralston clan, headed by the formidable Dr. Ralston, until one day when the family’s youngest son, was found drowned, and then one of his older sisters jumped to her death from one of the house’s balconies. The house was abandoned and the family never recovered. In the present day, Marlowe is intrigued by Morning House, but starts growing more wary as strange things begin happening. Is the “Ralston Curse” real? Or is this a case of straightforward modern-day murder?

This book is told along two timelines: the past, leading up to the deaths of the Ralston siblings; and the present, following Marlowe’s story.

Wow. I couldn’t stop reading this book once I started- between the past and present stories, I was so pulled into it, I absolutely had to know how the book ended. And I was completely shocked with the ending too. It was soooo good. Like seeing a beautiful painting come together before your eyes.

What’s also brilliant is that Maureen Johnson really lays the groundwork for the whole big picture from the beginning, and you really only see it until she wants you to. It’s then that you begin to see everything in a new clarity that makes it all seem so clear. I love books like that. Because it shows a level of planning and perspective that just makes you appreciate the brilliant writing and creativity of the author.

The book is also just good at a basic level, I mean: an abandoned mansion, weird family, murder, a supposed curse, tension among the group on the island in the present day, an incoming storm at the book’s climax - what more could you want?! It’s just good thriller material.

This book is a great mystery/thriller for YA and adult fans alike looking for a great story. Highly recommended!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. I enjoyed this book and think you will to. OMG Maureen has done it again. She is just such a wonderful writer read this book!

Huge fan of Maureen Johnson! I love Truly Devious and this book felt very similar in all the good ways.
Marlow Wexler gets in trouble after accidentally setting a house on fire that she was house-sitting for.
She wants to get out of town as everyone knows what happened. She ends up finding a job giving tours at the Morning House, a 1920s mansion on an island with a tragedy-filled past.
There are two mysteries, one set in the 1920s (relating to the house) and one now.
I really enjoyed the flashbacks and how everything tied together.
I hope that this isn't just a stand-alone novel.
Some drinking but overall pretty clean for middle school.
I received a preview of this book from Net Galley. Many thanks to HarperCollins