The Truly Devious Series

SUMMARY

Ellingham Academy is a private boarding school in Vermont where the United States' brightest thinkers, inventors, artists, and creators come to play. Founded by one of America's richest, from-the-ground-up benefactors in the early 20th century, Ellingham Academy, while a center of learning and talent, has a storied, infamous, and twisted past. Albert Ellingham's wife, Iris, and daughter, Alice, were kidnapped soon after his school's opening. Neither returned. A taunting riddle was left for Mr. Ellingham written by the assumed criminal who used the pseudonym Truly Devious.

Decades later, Stephanie Bell steps onto Ellingham's campus with one goal: to solve the case, the crime of a lifetime. Much to her parents' chagrin, Stevie spends more time with the crime and real documents and evidence than with her anatomy class subject matter. Along the way, she enlists the help of her housemates: a novelist, Nate, an actor, Hunter, an artist with a French fetish, Ellie, an inventor-ess, Janelle, and a strangely attractive jokester, David. While trying to solve the case, murder visits Ellingham Academy again.

Look! A riddle! Time for fun!

Should we use a rope or a gun...?

REVIEW

Ok, y'all these books are good. Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, and The Hand on the Wall are GOOD good. I am a huge mystery/detective/crime gal, as you all have thoroughly been informed. I know a good series when I see one. As a fan of all the greats, Dorothy Sayers, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and so many more. If you don't trust me in any other genre, trust me with mystery. It is a clean mystery too. For true thriller lovers, that is a REALLY good thing too, as I hate it when authors get too bogged down in the romance scenes to focus on the important task at hand: restitution for the central crime committed! There was a small, undercurrent, unlikely romance though, which I really enjoyed.

Well done, Maureen Johnson! So so good!

Audience: 13+

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Date Published: 2018, 2019, 2020

Format: hardback

Genre: YA fiction, mystery, detective, slight-thriller, dual perspective

*sensitive content*: LGBTQ relationship (fairly minor); drugs (minor), alcohol (minor)

Comments

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