Truly Devious A Mystery by Maureen Johnson

Truly Devious A Mystery (edition 2018)

by Maureen Johnson, Kate Rudd (Narrator.)

Series: Truly Devious (1)

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
2,037	93	7,955	(3.92)	33
Horror. Mystery. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML: 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 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 .… (more)

▾Book information

Member:	angelicistic
Title:	Truly Devious A Mystery
Authors:	Maureen Johnson
Other authors:	Kate Rudd (Narrator.)
Info:	[United States] : Harper Collins Publishers, 2018.
Collections:	Your library
Rating:
Tags:	None

Work Information

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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▾Member reviews

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Showing 1-5 of 91 (next | show all)

Takes a bit to give in to the sort of ridiculous setting, but it does get going in the second half. The problem with the love interest is that he's not at all interesting. I believe Stevie is into him, but when they have their romcom low moment, I didn't care that he was mad at her and was annoyed that she moped about it.

Is Leo supposed to be gay? There's nail polish, and at one point he calls himself a friend of Dorothy (he's referring to Dorothy Parker, not Oz), which (probably) would've been anachronistic. (

)

caedocyon | Feb 22, 2024 |

This was really good! Didn't realize it was YA until i finished good. I really wish I had already put in a hold on the second book! (

)

hellokirsti | Jan 3, 2024 |

2.5 stars (

)

filemanager | Nov 29, 2023 |

I really enjoyed this book, but if I'd known that it didn't have an ending (unless To Be Continued counts as an ending) (it's a MYSTERY NOVEL, y'all) (And come to think of it, NEITHER mystery is solved) I never would have read it. I'll probably just look up the resolution online somewhere because I'm so irritated.

4 stars for (half a) story, 1 star for the bait and switch of pretending it's a fully formed novel, so I split the difference at 2 stars. (

)

autumndragyn | Nov 23, 2023 |

3.5/5

YA murder mystery??? What an amazing genre I didn't know existed.

This was a fun read.

I liked the cuts back and forth between modern day and the 1930s.The DOUBLE MYSTERY. The intrigue!

I do think it's dumb that it's multiple books, because I didn't get any answers that mattered. I'd rather just read it all at once, and then they could cut down on the boring dragging stuff, too.

Overall, though, I didn't expect to like this as much as I did, so I'm happy about it! I was worried, because as much as I love murder mysteries, I am not a fan of the true crime podcast type thing. It feels a little invasive imo. Buuut I feel like the author handled things pretty well.

I was more interested in the flashbacks than in the modern-day story. There were boring parts that dragged. Sometimes, it just felt like nothing was happening. There were too many characters, and I DON'T CARE ABOUT DAVID!

In conclusion, it was fun, but I wish that they cut down on boring things I don't care about so we could get all of the answers in one book. (

)

telamy | Nov 6, 2023 |

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Showing 1-5 of 91 (next | show all)

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▾Other authors

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Maureen Johnson	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Nickolls, Leo	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Rudd, Kate	Narrator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

Belongs to Series

Truly Devious (1)

Is contained in

Truly Devious 3-Book Box Set: Truly Devious, Vanishing Stair, and Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson

▾Awards and Honors

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Canonical title

Truly Devious

Original title

Truly Devious

Alternative titles

Original publication date

2018-01-16

People/Characters

Important places

Ellingham Academy

Vermont, USA

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

For anyone who has ever dreamed
of finding a body in the library

First words

FATE CAME FOR DOTTIE EPSTEIN A YEAR EARLIER, IN THE FORM OF A call to the principal’s office.

Quotations

Last words

(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

Blurbers

Green, John

Lockhart, E.

Weinman, Sarah

Original language

Canonical DDC/MDS

813.6

Canonical LCC

PZ7.J634145

▾References

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English

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▾Book descriptions

Horror. Mystery. Young Adult Fiction. Young Adult Literature. HTML:

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 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

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