Review--Death at Morning House by Maureen Johnson

 

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?

Maybe this job isn’t such a gift after all. Morning House has a horrific secret that’s been buried for decades, and now the person who brought her here is missing.

All it takes is one clue to set off a catastrophic chain of events. One small detail, just like a spark, could burn it all down—if someone doesn’t bury Marlowe first.

Death at Morning House is yet another entertaining and somewhat chilling mystery from Maureen Johnson! I positively love Maureen's voice! In all of her novels, her heroines lead with their own unique persona that just livens up the page and this book is no different!

Marlowe has a very realistic voice of a seventeen year old girl. She tells this story in her own words and I just loved her additional commentary, because yes, she comments (occasionally) on the things she says. It makes for great entertainment, like Marlowe is someone I would be friends with because she's very real.

All Marlowe wanted to do was impress her crush, Akilah, and take her out on a fabulous date so they could fall in love and live happily ever after. But then the candle exploded and she set her neighbor's house on fire which she had been housesitting for them like she did every summer. And things take a dark spiral from there.

Then a teacher offers her a job at Morning House as a tour guide, as the group was short one member and Marlowe is a quick study and has a good memory to be able to give the tours of this historical house which has its own dark history, which we learn of through interspersed flashbacks. These were intriguing interludes between the story happening at large in the present day.

Marlowe learns through her coworkers and fellow teens, that she replaced Chris, who tragically died earlier that summer, leaving them short on guides. Their boss pretty much leaves them up to their own devices as long as they do their job, she's there for moral support as she conducts her own research on things. And then one day, she disappears right before she was to meet with an important guest and a new mystery starts.

To say Death at Morning House was filled with mystery is putting it mildly. This book was the epitome of mysterious as there were quite a few mysteries both past and present that were unsolved. The one from the past gets solved through the flashbacks, but it's the more current mysteries that are the ultimate thinker. Deaths and vanishings...makes you think the killer might be on this little island somewhere and I totally pegged them down! Lol.

Needless to say I solved the mystery but as far as the reasons why that's usually what stumps me! Lol.

There was some touch and go moments of romance in this one. Marlowe starts things off with a romantic date and when she thinks things are over before they even start, she begins to maybe fall for another girl on this little island. I wouldn't call it a love triangle per se, but it's definitely complicated! Lol. But since the romance wasn't super integral to the story, it largely stayed in the background except for little moments here and there.

Pacing wise, this story was pretty good. There were some creepy moments, but I had the feeling going in this would not be a supernatural ghost story on the side. But there were doubts along the way for sure and I won't say what it ended up as because those moments were creepy! Occasionally, I felt like things dragged for a little bit here and there, but just as I got to that "do something" moment, something would in fact happen! But yes, while Marlowe was an entertaining narrator, there were moments of downtime and the mundane that had me craving for some kind of action.

All in all, this was still a rather entertaining novel. Marlowe's voice in particular kept me largely hooked into the story and the mysterious elements were done exceedingly well. I enjoyed the different past and present day mysteries going on even if some of the "why" reasons weren't fulfilling. But as a whole, this was yet another entertaining Maureen Johnson read that was worthy in itself!

Overall Rating 4/5 stars