Death at Morning House

De: Maureen Johnson

Narrado por: Katherine Littrell

An instant New York Times and Indie bestseller!

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.

©2024 Maureen Johnson (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Fun read that will keep you guessing…

I buddy read this with a friend and we both enjoyed it. See I read the Truely, Devious series, Maureen Johnson has been a favorite of mine.

Funny, Slow Upstart, like Scooby-Doo whodunnit

Funny, Slow Upstart, like Scooby-Doo whodunnit, good narration, enjoyed the LGBTQIA representation as non-issue just past of the character stories.

not a suitable narrator

the voice acting is very childish and immature. also the narrator's accent is very distracting and pulls the listener out of the story frequently.

Great Stand Alone Novel

Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious Series is one of my absolute favorites; I recommend the original trilogy to any and everyone. This didn’t quite live up, but was still a really great story. I love the dual storytelling, and she gave us another fun and quirky main character.

Duel Timeline as only M. Johnson could do

I wasn't sure what it would be like following a different crew of teens than Johnson's Truly Devious group, as I have loved most all their stories. As normal Johnson churns out two mysterious in one story- one from the past and one in present. This main character, Marlowe, is quickly, charming, and fun to tag alongside. If I am being honest, this book felt a bit more grounded because Marlowe is a basic teen in an old mansion- riddled by the ghostly stories from the house's past - while Stevie and co. lead the luxurious life of solving mysteries in a private school on a snowed-in mountain, with a continuous fictitious feeling life as a whole. Marlowe is not only more palatable at times, but the rest of the group feels like your average teens in comparison to the Devious group. This location and setting was great, along with the mystery concept itself.
I feel like both ends of this is solvable, but the clues are not as straight forward, the reader and our main character must surmise a lot of suspicious "could be" or around about thoughts to channel or churn out what possibly went down. I genuinely do wish there were more clues or tangible facts to follow, so as the reader I feel like I could confidently solve instead of coming to an ending I had great guesses, but not much concrete fact to work off of.
All in all, I do think this is my favorite mystery this year, possibly even beating out the Reappearance of Rachel Price. It's hard to say if we will get a follow up to this book, but I believe if Johnson wishes to write a sequel she will have a very willing readers.

I'm going to split ratings by timeline to give a better depiction of how I felt:

Old Timeline:
Concept 5/5
Setting 4.5/5
Characters 3.5/5
Mystery Itself 4/5
Clues 4/5
Solvability 4/5
Fear Factor 2/5
Plot 4/5
Coherence 4/5
Romance \
Audio Reader 4/5



New Timeline:
Concept 3/5
Setting 4.5/5
Characters 4/5
Mystery Itself 3/5
Clues 2.5/5
Solvability 3/5
Fear Factor 1/5 oddly even if characters were in danger..it just didn't feel believable
Plot 3/5
Coherence 4/5
Romance 3.5/5


Audio Reader 4.5/5
Overall Rating of Book as a Whole: 4/5 (i'm giving grace on lack of clues or solvability because I honestly had a lot of fun reading)

Verdict: Never leave a candle unattended.

Fun!

I love the way Maureen Johnson weaves a contemporary mystery with a historical one. I didn’t love these characters quite as much as the Stevie series, but still really enjoyed it. Would recommend.

Maureen Johnson does it again

I love the unwraveljng of the mysteries past and present that are a Maureen Johnson staple. I also love the inclusion of diverse characters especially non-binary characters in a normalizing way -same with race and sexuality! Thank you Maureen

Maureen Johnson does it again.

After ready all the Truly Devious books, I was pumped that MJ had a new book out for me to devour. This one did not disappoint! I like the format of a mystery in the past and a mystery in the present. Makes it so interesting to get 2 mysteries solved in the end. At first, all the character names in past and present were slightly confusing but that goes away after the first few chapters. I love how MJ weaves in real history and hints at modern current events as well. Great book, easy read, entertaining. Highly recommend.

Perfect Cozy Mystery

What don’t I like about Maureen Johnson? That she made me miss her writing so much! lol! Honestly, i haven’t read a YA in almost a year. And this was such a perfect book that I listened to in a day! My laundry and make up brushes thank you for the entertainment! Made the clothes play nice while being folded:)

Disappointing

I am a fan of the truly devious series, and this was more of the same tropes: a mystery and murder in the past and a mystery and murder in the present with teenage protagonists. Unfortunately, the characters are not compelling. They all come across as snarky sociopaths, especially the main character. I know the author was trying to convey an awkward, sarcastic person who is coming into themselves, but instead, the main character just comes across as completely unfeeling. It’s made me wonder if the author is a bit of a sociopath since there is no consideration or thought towards the people who are killed. I also don’t see the characters exchanging any kind of simple niceties such as saying thank you. There are no stakes because these aren’t real people. I also found the narrator kind of grating. If there is going to be another entry in the truly devious series, I hope the Johnson will return to form because this was not good at all.