Truly Devious

“Schools may be famous for many things: academics, graduates, sports teams.

They are not supposed to be famous for murders.”

Summary: Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth century tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he said, “where learning is a game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder, signed with the frightening pseudonym “Truly, Devious.” It became one of the great unsolved crimes of American history.

True-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy, and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve this cold case. That is, she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the actor, the artist, and the jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder. 

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.

New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.

Review:

Oh. My. God. I need to read the sequel right now!!! This books was like murder mystery heaven.

This books starts with a riddle by Truly Devious which I really liked, and then it goes form past in 1936 and the present day with three different mysteries that are intertwined. I found that the mysteries from 1936 were a lot more interesting than the one from present day, which was treated like an accident for mush of the novel. This novel is a bit slow paced and it keeps you wondering and worrying while, all while slowly introducing the alternate motives of the characters.

At times the pacing did bother me, but I think the other did that intentionally to keep the readers interested. Whenever there is a plot twist or key information revealed, the other makes it totally delightful, and then it makes the readers want to know more.

I just adore the mystery of this novel, since you really don;t know who Truly Devious is! Is it the same person from the previous murder or someone else? Are the murder connected?

There are just so many twists and turns and questions, that's almost impossible to stop reading.

When it comes to characters, I simply loved Stevie. She has a morbid obsession with all thing crime, often reading murder mysteries and listening to true crime podcasts which I think is different from most books, since she comes to the place actually hoping for a mystery. The characters include Nate who is grumpy and doesn't like social conversations(I can relate), Janelle who's black and is really into STEM, Halle who's a you-tuber, David who's nice and suspicious at the same time, and Ellie who's fun to hang out with, but will probably get you arrested. The books also included a girl in a wheelchair and a Muslim girl with a hijab. The diversity in this book was appreciated, since a lot of books don't have any.

As in most books, there was something I didn't like, other than the slow pacing, the cliffhanger ending. I'm all for cliffhangers, but this book left to many questions unanswered, and left me a little unsatisfied.

Overall this was a suspenseful mystery novel that lays the groundwork for an interesting sequel.