I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

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.

Short and Sweet Review

Marlowe’s first date with Akilah goes up in flames literally, but the fire wasn’t her fault. Now that Marlowe isn’t going to be a house sitter anymore she’s looking for a new gig and she gets offered the chance to work at Morning House. Morning House has a dark history, after the death of two family members the house was abandoned but that was back in the 1920s. Morning House today still has a dark cloud over it and Marlowe is about to find herself solving three mysteries.

Death at Morning House was a great book, Johnson knows how to write a mystery novel. Marlowe is our main character and we meet her while she’s on a date that goes awry. When she goes to Morning House she meets her four roommates and Marlowe basically got the job because the original fifth roommate died. Of all of the roommates Marlowe gets along with Riki the most. We get chapters from the 1920s which gives us an insight on the Ralston family and the deaths that happened. I thought this book started off slow but once there’s another disappearance at Morning House during the present POV things started to pick up and at that point I didn’t want to put the book down and I just wanted to know what would happen next. I do think the POV from the past was the most interesting and I wouldn’t have minded if the whole book was set in that time period but I did enjoy seeing the mystery unravel.

Overall, I loved the dual timelines and I thought they added to the mystery aspect. This book is full of twists and it has a diverse cast of characters it’s almost like a big game of clue. I would recommend this book and if you like mysteries I recommend Johnson’s other mystery books!