A modern “New Woman”, Miss Marigold Manners cleans up a house, a family, and two murders in Elizabeth Hobbs’ historical mystery, Misery Hates Company.
In 1894, after the death of both her parents due to influenza, Miss Marigold Manners learns they spent all the Manners money, the houses are gone, and she has to find a place to live. She can’t afford to go back to Wellesley College or to Greece for the summer archaeological session. Instead, she writes to a number of relatives informing them of her parents’ death. She hears back from an unknown relative, Sophronia Sedgwick Hatchet, who offers her a place to stay on Great Misery Island off the coast of Salem, Massachusetts. Cousin Sophronia also offers a mystery, saying she must be forgiven by Marigold’s mother, Esme, so she owes Marigold a place to stay.
After her train ride, Marigold learns people are appalled when they learn she’s to stay with the Hatchets. She even has to row over to the island. Along the way, she thinks she spies a woman’s body in the sound. On the island, she finds a ramshackle place, a cousin with comments about curses and secrets, and two leering young men who are Sophronia’s sons. Great Misery Island seems to fit the house and family. But, Marigold is determined to make the best of it, and it isn’t long before she tries to take control, cleaning up, selling old iron, and planting a garden. She also wants to change the lives of her adult cousins who seem imprisoned on the island.
Marigold feels successful until a body is found, and a second body makes her a murder suspect. The intrepid heroine has supportive friends when everything she knows about her own life is turned upside down.
The language is old-fashioned and the characters are extremely odd. Even Marigold won’t be for everyone’s taste, the intrepid “New Woman”. It takes quite a long time to get to the mystery elements, and the solution is messy. Despite the Gothic atmosphere, Misery Hates Company, won’t be for everyone.
Elizabeth Hobbs’ website is https://elisabethhobbes.co.uk/.
Misery Hates Company by Elizabeth Hobbs. Crooked Lane Books, 2024. ISBN 9781639109739 (hardcover), 320p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley through NetGalley to review for a journal.
