Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Author: Maureen Johnson
Publisher:  HarperCollins
Date of publication: January 2018

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.

Truly Devious is about a girl who enrolls at a boarding school for the gifted and talented.  Stevie is a crime buff who wants to solve the murders that happened on the grounds back in the 1930s.  She is also looking for a place to fit in.  The story switches between the events of the 30s and the present. I have really mixed feeling about the book.  One one hand, I thought it was an engaging YA mystery that did keep me wanting to read it.  I liked the scenes from the 30s as they added intrigue to the story.  Taken as a straight YA mystery, it's enjoyable.   

So, why the mixed feelings?  Well I felt like the characters were pretty cliche.  They are all talented in some way and that means they all have to have their"quirks".  Can't any of them be talented normal kids?  You have the guy who lies but you aren't sure if he is really a bad guy (David). And of course Stevie is attracted to him.  You have the quiet nerdy  writer  who of course has writer's block and is in the friend zone. You have the smart STEM girl who also happens to be gay who immediately falls for the gender neutral character who goes by "they or them".  Then there is  the arrogant handsome YouTube star player and the artistic girl who was so over the top... I could go on.  The characters were just unoriginal and felt like there was a demographic checklist that was used while creating them. As a main character, I found Stevie a bit uninspiring.  It could have been that the narrator of the audio book made her sound whiny and bland at the same time. I just didn't connect with her at all.  Stevie even hates the "evil conservative" politician that her parents work for.  I found myself rolling my eyes a few times.

I guess I'll just have to say, if you can ignore the cliches, the mystery was intriguing enough.  However, I was not happy with the "To be continued..." ending.  I mean NOTHING gets solved.  It's a 432 page book and there are NO answers.  I found that incredibly frustrating and annoying.  I'll probably read the next one, but if it happens again, I'm done with the series.