Review: Truly Devious – Maureen Johnson

Title: Truly Devious (Truly Devious #1)
Author: Maureen Johnson
Published: january 16th 2018 by Katherine Tegen Books / Harper Collins
Genre: Young Adult – Murder-mystery
Page count: 416
Price: €13,25 (hardcover)
Synopsis:
Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont. 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.”
In 1936, shortly after the school opened, Ellingham’s wife and daughter, Iris and Alice, 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 crimes of American history. Something like that could never happen again, of course…
Years later, 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 suprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with murder.
Rating: ★★★★★

In Truly Devious you follow two mysteries. The first one starts in 1936 and never got solved. Albert Ellinghams, who founded the school where the whole book takes place, wife and daughter got abducted by a criminal who goes by the name Truly Devious. The case never got solved. That’s why Stevie Bell is obsessed by the cold case in the present day. She starts at Ellingham Academy with one missing, find out who Truly Devious is. Her plan gets interrupted by the suprise return of the mysterious Truly Devious. Now she has two cases to solve.

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I loved this book! It’s really well plotted. Althought I could not guess what was coming next, it never felt like it came out of nowhere. Johnsons writing style is very readable which makes this book a page turner.

There’s a lot of diversity in Truly Devious. The main character had anxiety, which was represented very well. I have anxiety myself and I could relate to Stevie’s thought process and feelings. There were also a few LGTBQ+ characters who I adored.

The characters were well written and developed. They didn’t feel like they were fictional but actually real human beings. You get attached to them very quickly.

My only “negative” comment on the book is that the mystery in the present started really late. I didn’t mind that but I’ve heard a lot of people complain about that fact. I think it’s actually a good thing because it gives you time to concentrate on and learn about the mystery in the past. It also allows you to get to know the main characters more which makes the mystery in the present more intriguing because you are more invested in the characters.

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Truly Devious is a great start for this mystery trilogy! I will definitely be picking up the second and third (which comes out the 21st of January 2020)

Silke –