Misery Hates Company

DEBUT In 1894, after her parents’ deaths, Miss Marigold Manners learns that most of the family money is gone, so she can’t continue her education at Wellesley College. She writes to relatives for help but only hears back from Sophronia Sedgewick Hatchet, a distant relation who lives on Great Misery Island off the coast of Massachusetts. The letter sounds mysterious, as Sophronia says she has to be forgiven for wrongs to Marigold’s deceased mother. Marigold travels by train but ends up rowing herself over to the island where she finds a ramshackle place, three odd cousins, the ranting uncle who owns it, and women who lock themselves away. Marigold decides to clean up the island and help her cousins move on with their lives. She feels successful until first one body, then another shows up. When Marigold becomes a murder suspect, the intrepid heroine turns amateur sleuth. She might uncover a killer, but when family secrets are revealed, even Marigold is shocked.