Book Review: Death At Morning House by Maureen Johnson

Marlowe Wexler has a near photographic memory, a crush on her gorgeous co-worker Akilah Jones, and about the worst first date story of all time. When a kindly neighbor gives her the chance to leave town for the summer and lick her emotional wounds while working on one of the nearby Thousand Islands, she takes it.

Morning House is the name of the mansion built on Ralston Island where an eccentric physician, his glamorous wife and their seven children lived on a strict regimen of diet and exercise in the early 1900s. Then disaster struck, causing the survivors to flee the place as if cursed. Now the entire complex has been purchased and restored, and is being opened to the public under the watchful eye of Dr. Belinda Henson. She’s hired a cadre of local teenagers to live on the premises and oversee the public tours while she works on a book about the Ralston family and their tragedies. 

Marlowe is happy enough to join the teenaged crew, who mostly do their best to welcome her into their once tightly knit friend circle. As she learns the ropes of both her job and her new friends’ tangled history, she discovers that not everyone believes the official story of what happened to the island’s former occupants. While discussing a book about the legend of the Princes In The Tower and the subsequent vilification of Richard III, one of the other teenagers posits its connection to the more recent tragedy:

“What if the stories are all bullshit, made up by his enemies and then passed along through history. Because that’s what history is–passed-down stories, documents. And people choose the story they like the best a lot of the time.”

 

“What,” I said, “are you talking about?”

 

Riki let out a frustrated grumble, but focused. “The official story has always been that Max Ralston snuck out when his nurse was napping and drowned, and then [his eldest sister] Clara died of grief. But there’s always been a local story as well. People around town always wondered about what went down at Morning House. These two kids die, then the family immediately skips town and never comes back. Some people thought that another family member killed Max.”

Rumor even has it that treasure is buried on the island, which is riddled with hidey-holes and secret passageways that are as much a legacy of bootleggers passing through the area as of the idiosyncratic mind of Dr. Philip Ralston, the family’s patriarch. Marlowe herself isn’t too bothered by the peculiarities of the place, until she realizes that the deaths of the Ralstons aren’t the only ones haunting the people currently living there. As she finds herself unwittingly embroiled in solving murders old and new, she’ll find her own life threatened as a desperate killer seeks to keep their awful secrets buried with the unspeaking dead.

Maureen Johnson has a knack for writing vibrant teenage characters who feel like real people, whether they’re contemporary or historical. While the insecure but well-meaning Marlowe was definitely my favorite character here, I also had a soft spot for Clara, whose struggles against the confining rules of her family lead her to some pretty dark places. I kept drawing parallels between the teenagers of the present-day story with the young Ralstons, and overall found it a fulfilling exercise. Johnson knows how to plot and pace her twist-filled novels perfectly, such that I only figured out whodunnit a little before Marlowe did.

I also loved how the author seamlessly includes historical controversies that still cast a long shadow over the present day. Upon arriving at Morning House, Marlowe isn’t fully cognizant of its obscure and often unhappy past, saying to Dr. Henson:

“You must be glad they saved it,” I said. “All this history.”

 

I said this as an offhand remark–something you do to punctuate a conversation. Like “nice to meet you” or “have a good day” or “this concludes my TED Talk.” I wasn’t thinking much of anything aside from that the view was nice, I missed Akilah, and I wondered how many nights in a row I could just eat hot dogs until everyone else here dismissed me as a dirtbag. So I was confused when Dr. Henson said, “No, not really.”

 

“No?”

 

“No. That’s not how history works. We don’t save every monument just because it’s big or because it’s there. Lots of things are big, lots of things are there. Some things should be allowed to fall down.”

Full of wisdom, charm and a perhaps surprising amount of action, this vividly written murder mystery is a terrific standalone novel that is my favorite so far of the author’s oeuvre. In addition to the excellent representation of diversity throughout, it’s got a sweet and entirely realistic love story. I honestly wouldn’t mind if this were the start of a series featuring Marlowe and her friends, who are engaging and smart and feel like people I’d love to spend more time around.