The Stats
📖 BOOK REVIEW⠀📚
BOOK: Truly Devious
AUTHOR: Maureen Johnson
@maureenjohnsonbooks
Publisher: Harper Collins @harpercollins
Stars: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published: January 16, 2018
“There is nothing so serious as a game.”
― Maureen Johnson, Truly Devious
The Review:
I had this book sitting on my shelf for a few months, and then I accrued the next 2 in the series. For some reason, reading this book kept getting pushed. Then, for Reading Rush, I made it a point to pick this one as part of the selections. And I am so glad I did.
The story is told from the kidnapping and murders of various members of the Ellingham family in 1936 as well as the present time, where Stevie arrives at Ellingham Academy. Stevie wants to solve this cold case, as part of her pursuit of her studies. In the process, another death occurs, and Stevie must find the killer, and Truly Devious strikes again.
I honestly could not put this book down, finishing it in a day. Afterwards, I got sad because I wanted to read the other three but had other reviews (ya know, priorities). But the fact that I bought these books (all 3!) didn’t give me remorse because I love them. Maureen Johnson definitely is up my alley and I can’t wait for the 4th one, coming out next year now!!!
Stay tuned for my review of the 2nd book soon.
You can see my video review here:
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.
All thoughts and opinions are my own.