Review: Murder Made Her Wicked by Elizabeth Hobbs

ABOUT THE BOOK

Bicycle-riding, aspiring archaeologist Marigold Manners is back and ready for adventure in Elizabeth Hobbs’s next mesmerizing historical mystery.

“A humdinger…whose characters bring to mind those of both Emily Brontë and L. M. Montgomery” (Kirkus), this second installment is perfect for fans of Deanna Rayborn.

1894, Boston. Penniless Boston heiress and accomplished modern woman Marigold Manners has put her past to good use, selling the story of the Great Misery Island Murders to earn enough money to resume the life she was always meant to have and return to her studies at Wellesley College. But her carefully laid plans for academic excellence are thrown into disarray when she stumbles across the body of a young woman in the campus lake. 

When the peace of the bucolic campus is shattered by the murder, the cloistered world of a women’s college that Marigold finds so comforting proves it is not immune to the malice and wickedness of the world. The closed community becomes a hothouse where disparagement blooms into insult and small slights that have festered for years blossom into academic rivalries that could spill over into something far more sinister. Marigold must use every ounce of her logic and enlist her eccentric, colorful cast of fellow students and found family to identify the girl and find the murderer—before they kill again.

OPENING LINE

“What was it about hats that always seemed to catch Marigold Manners’s eye?”

MURDER MADE HER WICKED, #2 Marigold Manners Mystery, by Elizabeth Hobbs. Published November 11, 2025.

GUEST REVIEW by SOPHIA ROSE

Managing Modern Woman, Marigold Manners, is back and determined to achieve scholastic success in the field of archeology, if only a pesky murder hadn’t derailed her academic plans. Elizabeth Hobbs penned a true original when Marigold burst on the scene in the first book, Misery Hates Company and now continues her escapades in Murder Made Her Wicked.

Coming from Old Boston family wealth, Marigold was left penniless right on the cusp of her plans to attend Wellesley and go on to a grand career as an enlightened woman with no man in charge to hold the finances and tell her what to do.  Though yes, handsome, wealthy, and charming Cab tempts her to give up her plans even as she attempts to draw him into scandal rather than matrimony.  Fortune shines, and her book covering the Great Misery Island Murders sold for enough to attend Wellesley in style.

Heading to rowing practice at the lake, Marigold spots a body. Everyone, including the police, is determined that the unknown young lady took her own life, and women have no business nosing into death, but Marigold and the campus physician know otherwise.  Marigold will add the case to her task list.  With her characteristic proficiency and with the help of new friends and old, she’ll get to the bottom of matters lurking under the surface at Wellesley.

1890’s Boston and Wellesley College came alive in Murder Made Her Wicked. The characters with Marigold at the forefront were engaging, the mystery was slow-burn and not difficult, but the character and relationship side of the plot really shone bright.  I do hope there are to be more jaunts into murder with Miss Marigold Manners leading the way on her trusty bicycle.

Elizabeth Hobbs, author

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Hobbs is a New Englander born and bred, who spent her childhood roaming the woods, making up stories about characters who live far more exciting lives than she. It wasn’t always so—long before she ever set pen to paper, Elizabeth graduated from Hollins College with a BA in classics and art history, and then earned her MA in nautical archaeology from Texas A&M University. While she loved the life of an underwater archaeologist, she has found her true calling writing historical mysteries full of wit, wickedness, and adventure. Elizabeth writes wherever she is and loves to travel from her home in Texas, where she lives with her husband, the Indispensable Mr. Hobbs, and her darling dogs, Ghillie and Brogue, in an empty nest of an old house filled to the brim with bicycles and books.

Guest reviewer, Sophia Rose

ABOUT SOPHIA ROSE, Guest reviewer

Sophia is a quiet, curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants, and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and a loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, baseball, cats, Scooby Doo, and chocolate. As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. In 2012, she submitted her first book review and is currently an associate reviewer.

Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener, which allows her to experience many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction, particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Sorry, no horror...or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby. Connect with Sophia via FACEBOOK GOODREADS TWITTER