Truly Devious: A Mystery
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 * Lincoln Award Nominee * 2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee * 2020 Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Winner
BUY THE BOOK
These clubs recently read this book...
Community Reviews
What Bookclubbers are saying about this book
✨ Summarized by Bookclubs AI
Readers say *Truly Devious* delivers an intriguing, dual-timeline mystery set in a unique and atmospheric boarding school. Many praise Maureen Johnson...
I loved so much about this book. It is the exact life I wish I could have had as a young teen. (Minus people having to die.) I have dogged eared so many pages, marking those sections that made me love it oh, so much.
pg. 136 :: This was the page that *completely* sucked me in. I had been enjoying the book, but had been picking it up and putting it down for a day or two. However, once I reached this point, I could not put it down.
pg. 178 :: One of my favorite quotes: "The whole thing smelled like a thrift shop that had been baked in a low oven and felt like a too-tight and too-long hug by a rejected muppet." (laughed out loud as I typed it)
pg. 185 :: The brilliant description of anxiety and panic attacks. It's beautifully accurate.
pg. 188 :: "Stevie went outside. The morning was fresh and bright - big blue skies and shaggy, happy clouds blowing over the mountains. It was the kind of morning that mocked the fear of the night before. This kind of pleasantness almost made it worse. How could she be anxious when everything was so cheerful."
pg 197 :: "I think you worry too much," Stevie said. "Of course I *worry* too much," Nate said. "But I'm usually right. The people who worry are always right. That's how that works."
pg. 234 :: How Stevie helps Nate breathe through his panic attack and how she has dealt with her own.
pg. 258 :: "I think I'm fine. Maybe it hasn't hit me yet. Is that bad?" "It's not bad or good. It just is. That's something you'll find out if you decide to go into this line of work. You have to take things as they are, not how you hear they're supposed to be." That was one of the most sensible things an adult had ever said to Stevie.
pg. 318 :: The descriptions of Stevie as she struggles with expressing her feelings. Well stated and so incredibly accurate...esp. for a young teen.
All in all, I loved this book. As I reached the final chapters, I texted my husband (who was out running errands) and required that he stop at a bookstore before he came home to get me the sequel. ;)
And in the beginning, mystery was her everything: coping mechanism, hobby, way to kill time, but mainly her coping mechanism. It was always on her mind, but by the middle of the book, it seemed like she was content just overthinking her anxiety and not turning to the ONE THING that put her mind at ease.
Another thing: there were chapters that were set in the 30’s. And then by the middle, there were none, then toward the end there were random FBI interviews from the 30’s and I just think that felt kinda messy.
I tried to like this book, but I just couldn’t. Maybe I’m reading YA mystery novels the wrong way???
See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.