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.
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 … 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.
Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018 * Junior Library Guild Selection * 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * 2019 ALA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018 * Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018 * 2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner * Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018 * Lincoln Award Nominee * 2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee * 2020 Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award Winner
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An intricately plotted, compulsively readable novel that explores not only fascinating crimes but also the mysteries of anxiety, the creative process, contemporary fame, and so much else.
Growing up, my brothers and I were obsessed with those computer games that let you play out mysteries as a modern-day Nancy Drew. We would spend hours talking to witnesses, gathering clues, exploring haunted mansions and mysterious old buildings, and experiencing the thrill of the old cozy detective stories made new again. Reading Truly Devious was exactly like playing one of those games: the richly thought out historical backstory (a boarding school with an unsolved murder!), the young, clever female detective, the fantastic cast of witnesses and suspects, and the sometimes scary, often thrilling escalation of the mystery itself. I absolutely loved this book’s premise and thought the author executed it perfectly – I already can’t wait for the sequel!
What a fun, YA mystery. Love the two mysteries in one idea – hate that the first book didn’t ‘solve’ either mystery. But I’ll jump in again. Easy reading.
Fans of Agatha Christie will rejoice when they take a trip to Ellington Academy with Stevie, a true-crime enthusiast and amateur sleuth from Maureen Johnson’s “Truly Devious.” The school itself was the setting of a terrible unsolved crime, and the story line jumps back to that event during the storytelling. Each chapter is clearly noted, and there’s no confusion with the time shifts.
The contemporary students have secrets of their own, including the likable hero, Stevie, who battles her personal anxiety by immersing herself in crime solving. Ellington allows her to explore the long cold case as part of her curriculum. Some of her new school friends even work with her on a research project about the kidnapping and murders. However, when one of the students dies on campus in a questionable way, Stevie puts her considerable intellect to work.
Stevie’s a gal from Pittsburgh, PA, USA who dislikes her parents’ politics. She surprises herself by really enjoying Ellington and her quirky classmates. There are several allusions to other wonderful literary mysteries and mystery writers, and the author clearly appreciates the rich zombie history of the Monroeville Mall where Stevie worked before going away to school. I will admit I chuckled several times when the inquisitive hero “wondered.” Stevie. Wondered. Giggle.
The story boasts a creepy rhyme, compelling story telling, and a GOSH DARNED CLIFFHANGER ENDING.
Anyone who knows me knows I despise cliffhanger endings.
I’ll forgive this affront, however, and look for the sequel.
This was a fantastic YA mystery. I enjoyed every aspect of it. However the book does end in a cliffhanger, so if that is not your thing then this might not be the book for you.
The main character, Stevie, was really relatable for me. I can truly say that I saw myself in her, but I don’t know if that’s enough for me to give this book a stellar review. It was the utmost abrupt cliff-hanger I have ever read! Who does that?? I was expecting it to be more, honestly. I expected that the cold case of Ellingham would be solved. But, I guess it would be better explored in the following books. I do hope that the next book can deliver better than this one. I’m watching out for it!
Harry Potter but with less magic and more mystery.
I really liked Stevie Bell. Her character was extremely relatable, real, raw. I was intrigued by the murder plot, and I loved the whodunnit aspect of this novel. Truly Devious is the definition of how a Book Best Friend should treat you.
The only downside to this book was how it ended. There wasn’t really a wrap-up of anything, just more questions needing to be answered. The first book in this series kind of gave me the LOST (like the TV show) vibe, where after each episode, the writers don’t answer any questions. They bring up more. No case “truly” solved . . . yet. Do you see what I did there?
I did, however, grab the second book in this series because Maureen Johnson did such a phenomenal job of hooking me at the end.
Stevie isn’t quite done with Ellingham Academy, and neither am I.
I liked this book! It had an interesting premise, I really liked the boarding school and all that went into living there. That was cool. The mystery part of the story was a big drawn out and slow, but going into the book, I didn’t realize it was spread out over three books.
In this first in the Truly Devious series, we meet Stevie who has just been accepted to a free form high school where students are encouraged to learn the subjects that are passions for them. Stevie’s passion is murder. She is determined to solve a crime that happened at the school in the 1930s. Her goal is tested when she stumbles on a present day dead body and has one more mystery to solve.
They mystery is engaging and challenging with a “truly devious” and clever villain. It will leave you wanting to grab the next book immediately.
First in a series.. well written Young Adult… Mystery detective.. Love it… Not a fan of the ending. Ordered book 2.
I loved this one. Stevie reminded me of a female Sherlock Holmes. The cliffhanger got me though! I need to read the next one right now.
Truly Devious is based on a mystery spanning several decades at the Ellingham Academy. Maureen Johnson writes a descriptive setting that I felt I was walking the grounds with Stevie and her classmates. Stevie is passionate about true crime and in solving the mystery from 1936 but then mysterious things begin to occur. The cast of characters are unique and any reader can find one of them to connect with. This story is told with a dual timeline and is full of mystery and suspense. I will continue with the next book because hello cliffhanger!
I truly enjoyed reading Truly Devious and have now ordered the other 2 books in the series.
I loved Stevie Belle and all her cohorts at Ellingham Academy.
Stevie has good intentions of solving the cold case from 1936: so many riddles , so many clues.
Can’t wait to read Book 2.
I have been seeing this series everywhere and it sounded like something I would enjoy. Once in a while I like a good mystery and who can resist a school setting?!
I saw that it had mixed rating and I was hesitant but I went for it anyway… I’m happy to report that I enjoyed it.
I liked the writing, and the way she mixed the two timelines to keep it interesting and us reading and guessing, but without being confusing or too much of it.
I have to admit though that Stevie was not my favorite, while I liked her (most the time) I often got annoyed by her. She sometimes thought very highly if herself. Also, sometimes things just always seemed to work out for her or people all the sudden stepped in out if nowhere, that not always made complete sense.
The semi very low-key romance I could have lived without, or at least I’m not sure how I feel about it … yet…. we will see how it goes.
Overall, it definitely is a first book in the series and establishes worldbuilding and interduces us to a lot of characters.
It started out a bit slow because of the world and character building but it got pretty fast paced about quarter way in and has some twists for sure. It also keeps us guessing even at the end.
The end is a pretty good cliffhanger…… I didn’t see that coming ….I thought there was something up…. but that was not it.
Overall, I loved the mystery and guessing and can’t wait what book two has in store for us.
I rate it 4
If all young adult mysteries were like Truly Devious, I’d enjoy more of them. I read a few of them, notably the Charlotte Holmes series which was fun but didn’t stick with me in any reliable way, but Truly Devious already stands out as better than the rest of them. Truly Devious doesn’t immediately jump out as being all that different from the others: we have a young female detective, an eclectic cast of other characters, and a boarding school setting. But this book gets a much better review than others because of the uniqueness of the school setting and timeline, and also the voice of our main character.
Stevie Bell is the odd one out at the prestigious Ellingham Academy. Ellingham Academy accepts students for their final two years of high school, and everyone accepted is usually a prodigy in their respective fields: acting, art, music, journalism, coding. Stevie is a true crime fan and wannabe detective, but her accomplishments compared to her rich and skilled classmates aren’t much. But Ellingham has always been a dream for her, as it’s the site of a decades-old cold case: the kidnapping of founder Albert Ellingham’s wife and daughter following a bizarre poetic threat signed Truly, Devious. The wife was found dead, their daughter Alice had never recovered, and the man convicted for the crime wasn’t a very convincing suspect. Stevie wants to solve the case and make a name for herself in the detective business, but when Truly Devious makes their return to enact crimes against the new Ellingham student body, the mystery expands not only to become a detective, but to save Stevie and her friends.
Ellingham Academy was such a delight to spend time in. Albert Ellingham is one of those eccentric, philanthropic billionaires that only exist in fiction, but its always a fun fantasy. He has his fingers in a lot of pies and used that money to open up a school for students with exceptional talents regardless of race, religion, or social class, built halfway up a mountain and free of tuition, board, food, and everything else. The school is like everything I wanted my high school to be: artists and computer science nerds are on equal ground, both given great resources and encouraged to follow their talents, complete with specialized classes for them. The library is massive, any book can be ordered. Food is excellent and provided. Boarding schools are commonly the place of young adult novels, mysteries even more, but Ellingham was unique enough that this setting felt entirely new. It also gave a plausible excuse for the eccentricness of the students. High school settings often don’t show the utter banality of the education system, but Ellingham was the perfect place to gather the unusual cast of characters we so often see for murder mysteries. This novel felt almost like Agatha Christie with its eclectic characters and a setting unlike any others.
Truly, Devious also takes places in two timelines: a split mystery. In our main narrative, Stevie Bell spends her time in Ellingham attempting to become a detective by solving the cold case. Secondly, we walk with Albert Ellingham through the worst days of his life. We get to see those few days where Ellingham receives the threat, tries to pay off several ransoms, and finally involves the police. These chapters are filled not only with regular story narration, but with other types of media like interview transcripts and news clippings. I thought that this was a great way to tie the two mysteries together and to ensure that readers were interested not only in Stevie’s mystery, but with the mystery she loves also. We want to solve the mystery just as much as she does. It also serves to elevate Albert Ellingham to a real person rather than just a goofy billionaire, which is an archetype that is extremely unlikely in real life and I have little tolerance for. It can be hard to get all the details of a cold case across in present day timelines without tons of exposition dumping, so the dual timelines worked perfectly on both an emotional and technical level.
I know Maureen Johnson from her work on the podcast Welcome to Night Vale, where she plays a funny and intrepid intern at the local radio station who continually dodges death. Welcome to Night Vale has a great voice and Intern Maureen is very funny, so I wasn’t surprised to find that same kind off offbeat humor in her novel. It was really the voice that made this book. Stevie is an awkward kid, unsure of her place in the academy, but the novel deftly avoids the not-like-other-girls syndrome. Her narration is charmingly humorous, filled with all the awkward insides and issues that an out-of-place teenage girl might have. Her relationship with her ultra-conservative parents, her attempts at making friends and romance, they all have a touch of Stevie’s sardonic voice.
Truly, Devious was truly one of the best YA mysteries I’ve read. It takes a bit to get going: to establish the setting, all the characters, the cold case in the past, and Stevie’s personal situation, so the pace could’ve definitely been sped up, but the second half of the book more than made up for it. I would recommend this book to people who want a good mystery but don’t necessarily want to get into a hyper-complex narrative, people who love main characters with legitimate personalities, or those of us who love a cast of oddballs.
review blog
I love this series! I just finished the last book, and it was SO WORTH IT! Such a unique book! The characters are fun, but the mystery is everything! Which is cool because that’s how the main character feels about it too. I think this author has a gift. One of the best true crime fiction series that I’ve read!
This is a book about a murder mystery set in a boarding school. We follow our main characters Stevie as she tries to solve a decades-old murder that happened at her new high school. But this also has to be put at a stand-still since a tragic event happens in present day too.
First and foremost, I like the mystery and the backstory of the school. It gives the whole book character and sets the atmosphere. I also like Stevie because she is relatable. She has anxiety and suffers from panic attacks. Not only that, she is also interested in something most teenagers aren’t. Well at least not to the extent she is. Also the little bit of romance that is present in this book is also cute and well done.
I loved this book.
I now see why so many people have recommended this book to me. I love Stevie and feel like she is someone I would highly enjoy not only spending time with, but investigating crime with as well. Each character is so unique and, with the cliffhangers and fast-pacing of the story, I had no choice but to get the sequel right away!!
I loved the whole series. I enjoy mystery books and point of view changes in mystery books. This book had some mildly boring parts in the 1930’s point of view but it was made up for by the amazing characters in the present. It was a great read in my opinion.