The Mortons A Novel

By: Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld

Published by Penguin Publishing Group, 2026-07-21

Meet the Mortons: In this family, murder is currency—and business is booming.

The Mortons are a modern day, old-money dynasty with impeccable taste, from their exquisitely crafted cocktails to their expertly tailored vintage garments. They are also stone-cold killers. For the Mortons, homicide is heritage.

They, along with the other legacy crime families, send their progeny to Helshire College, where the legacy kids strategically intermingle with ordinary students from wealthy families. Jessica Morton has always excelled at Helshire, secure in her knowledge that she is the prodigy of her generation. Now, having committed her first kill at her matriarch's behest, it should be Jessica's moment, her honor. But that kill will cut more ways than one, unknotting deep secrets that propel a series of revelations, spanning the Mortons' country estate, the New York City art world, and Helshire itself.

What happens to Jessica when all of her dearly-held certainties face the axe?

Sharp and hypnotic, The Mortons is an epic novel of alliances and power, loyalty and kinship, and the consequences of ruthless ambition.