Misery Hates Company, Elizabeth Hobbs
Misery Hates Company, Elizabeth Hobbs
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

Misery Hates Company
A Novel

Author: Elizabeth Hobbs

Narrator: Madeleine Dauer

Unabridged: 13 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/05/2024


Synopsis

Miss Marigold Manners may be steeped in the etiquette of her old-money Boston family, but she is also an accomplished, modern woman and an avid student of archaeology who can handle any situation with poise. When the death of her parents leaves her too destitute to pursue her academic career and she receives a letter from a distant relative on Great Misery Island, Marigold decides she must do what any person of superior sense and greater-than-average curiosity would: she mounts her trusty bicycle and heads up the craggy, fog-shrouded coast of New England for a date with fate.

Marigold arrives at Hatchet Farm, a moldering, gothic pile of a house inhabited by relatives so mired in the sins of the past, they have no future. She sets out to modernize the recluses with a brisk, ruthless efficiency, but her well-intentioned plans to manage their lives lead to malice—and murder. Marigold spies a body floating in the stormy waters surrounding the island, and her suspicions immediately turn to her hostile, weapon-wielding relatives when one of the local girls turns up missing. And she might not be the only one.

When another dead body is found in the garden of the estate, Marigold finds herself accused. She must enlist the help of an eccentric, colorful cast of friends and found family to save herself—and everything she holds dear.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kristen on March 01, 2025

This started out well and I was enjoying it. Marigold is exactly the kind of character I like - someone forced by circumstances into difficult situations but pulls up her boot straps and figures out how to make things work anyway. Where this went off the rails for me was once Marigold arrived at the......more

Goodreads review by Stephanie on August 21, 2024

This is a fast paced read of a New England reimagining/modernisation of Cold Comfort Farm (which I read recently in June 2024) by Stella Gibbons- In my opinion, the characters ( with name changes), situations, settings, story themes / sequence of events follow the classic novel closely in the first......more

Goodreads review by Ranjini on December 11, 2024

3 stars. This is a quick gothic read with a spunky protagonist. I got a little tired of the Pollyanna act by which she converts each of her family members into an ally and I found the twist ending to be a head scratcher. However the setting is well done and the characters are well developed It’s 1894......more

Goodreads review by Britta on April 25, 2025

If you like a Jane Austen novel, or Louisa May Alcott, you’ll love this book. The audiobook was particularly fun, due to the nature of the New England accents. It’s nice to see a “new” woman at the turn of the 20th century as a protagonist with the kind of self assured personality which leads her th......more

Goodreads review by Mary on December 29, 2024

I wasn't sure how to rate this book. My feelings kept changing as I read. I did think Marigold was a bit much in her ability to turn around people's feelings about her and solve everyone's problems, in a way. I also thought the romantic parts between Marigold and Cab were flat and dragged down the en......more