THE MARLOWE MURDERS

A woman with a perfect memory must solve a murder at the center of a wealthy, dysfunctional family in Giebfried and Wells’ mystery, the first in a series.

It’s 1955, and Alexandra Durant’s final year of graduate school isn’t going according to plan. First, she’s kicked out of her psychology program less than a year before completing her dissertation. (The reason? Not being “likable” enough.) Then she’s offered the chance to reenroll—but only if she does a favor for her professor, John Marlowe. Marlowe hires Alexandra to work as a maid for his mother for one month at the sprawling mansion on the family’s private island off Maine’s coast. It’s a strange request, but Alexandra needs to graduate, and the money John offers her will pay for her own mother’s medical treatment. Alexandra arrives on Exeter Island to find things not quite as John described them. First of all, his mother is dead! Her six children and their significant others—all of them quite odd—have descended on the island along with an estranged friend of the family named Isidore Lennox, whose presence causes quite the stir. At least the estate will be easy to sort out. John, the oldest, will inherit everything. Then John is murdered, leaving each of the 12 people on the island a possible suspect. Everyone is suspicious of one another. The only one Alexandra can trust is herself. Luckily, she has spent years developing a photographic memory—indeed, memory is the topic of her dissertation—making her the perfect sleuth to get to the bottom of the crime. She’ll need to hurry. Several of her housemates may be much more dangerous than they initially seemed. In solving his murder, maybe Alexandra can figure out the other mystery that’s been bothering her: Why did John hire her to be his mother’s maid the day after his mother died?

Giebfried and Wells deliver a wonderfully atmospheric murder mystery on foggy, snowbound Exeter Island. The location makes the lead’s circumstances feel even more remote and dangerous, while the incessant bickering of the surviving Marlowes creates an almost unbearable claustrophobia. The prose is exact and attuned to Alexandra’s analytical perspective. Here, before he dies, John gives her instructions for navigating the strange scenario involving multiple overbearing personalities: “Now, you’ll be thrown into certain situations while you’re here, and—like a good psychologist—you need to react appropriately. No judgment. No criticism. Nothing makes you uncomfortable. Understand?” The novel is a long one at over 500 pages, and its shifts in tone—moving easily from suspense to humor to horror to satire—keep the reader from ever getting too comfortable. Alexandra’s virtuosic memory and poor people skills make her a delightful detective, and the people around her provide an endless series of foils. The twists keep coming all the way to a satisfying ending. Perhaps the most exciting development is the promise of future Alexandra Durant cases to come.

A fun, inventive murder mystery set on a wintry Atlantic island.