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Truly Devious
Publisher's Summary
New York Times best-selling 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 20th 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.
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What members say
Average Customer Ratings
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Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2019-08-20
Truly terrible narration
I enjoyed the book in a general sense but feel that I would have preferred reading it instead of listening to it. I found the narration to be awful. So bad that I almost gave up. The male voices are beyond ridiculous. I was listening to it in the car with my husband and 14 year old daughter on a long road trip and non of us could let a single sentence of male dialogue go by without a solid guffaw and attempt (to great amusement) to imitate it.
The story appears to be clever and well told (at least initially) however I felt very let down by the ending. I agree with previous reviews that it's appropriate to carry elements of a mystery through a series but that there needs to be some resolution within individual books. It feels jarring and a bit of a cheap trick. So much so that I am not inclined to read the next ones.
There were some ridiculous and improbable elements that bothered me. How Stevie manages to ignore the message left on her wall by 'Devious', chalking it up to lack of sleep, heightened anxiety or what have you. As well as how she, for far too long, seems not even to consider the idea that the death of her fellow student was a murder and not an accident. (especially when paired with the message on her wall). These elements seemed out of keeping for the intelligent and intuitive teenager that is painted as a bit of a genius of crime.
All in all, the writing is better than average for the genre with creative detail, but the plot and pacing need some work. And please, oh please, a different narrator!!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- gwyndolin
- 2018-02-09
Thoroughly Enjoyable Story with Awful Narration
What did you love best about Truly Devious?
WARNING TO ANY PROSPECTIVE READERS: Although I loved this book, it ends on a really obnoxious cliffhanger and almost nothing gets resolved.
But it's saying something that, despite that, I still really enjoyed it. I should've known going in after reading quite a few of Johnson's books that it wouldn't give me closure (pretty sure Suite Scarlett is NEVER going to have a third book) but after how disappointingly boring I found her book "The Name of the Star", especially for its cop-out explanation to the 'mystery' being GHOSTS ARE REAL instead of... a real mystery, I really enjoyed this story.
It's still not grounded in anything close to the reality you and I know, but that works for it. Eccentric millionaires and long-past murder mysteries that interweive with the present are far-fetched, but Johnson makes it believable enough to work. It is really obnoxious that basically nothing is solved by the end... but I guess that's one way to make us look out for book 2.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Truly Devious?
I loved the characters. Stevie was a pretty enjoyable protagonist - just weird and antisocial enough to avoid being bland but not too much that she was actually unlikable. As usual, Johnson handles the little love interest subplot very well. I thought Janelle could have used more development, but maybe she will get it in following books.
How could the performance have been better?
This may be the first time I found an audible narrator so distracting I almost couldn't go on with the story. Her annunciation is just so... off. She over pronounces the "t's" and ends of words. Weirdly, her voices she does for boys sound perfectly natural, but her usual narration for anything but dialogue (i.e. most of the book) is so grating and unnatural. It's almost like she's trying to do an impression of a vampire or something? It was just SO distracting! Plus, you can tell Johnson is a pretty funny writer, even in this book (I know she is from her other ones) but this narrator just can't seem to deliver her writing in any comedic way. Her timing is so off.
I really hope for the second book they get a new narrator.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I had EXTREME frustration at the ending, but the last hour or so made my heart race a little bit. For a YA book, that's pretty damn good.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- April Anderton
- 2018-08-30
Mystery Books Need Endings
Beginning, middle, end. Key elements to a story. Even a bad story.
The writing in this book is enjoyable, the characters are interesting, the pacing is great. Until it's not. The book is a mystery and everything leads up to the climax perfectly. The ending is so close, it seems it's going to wrap up nicely... and then it ends before there is ANY resolution. I understand that it's a series. I even get that a cliffhanger is a nice way to end a book in a series. When you string a reader along in a mystery, however, you'd better deliver the killer by the end of the book. The series can go on, more murders with the same characters, but RESOLVE THE ORIGINAL INCIDENT FIRST! Dragging things out for three books may work in other genres, but mystery readers generally expect ENDINGS to every volume.
7 of 8 people found this review helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Henry63
- 2018-03-22
Bad Ending
Enjoyed the story but the Ending! Leads you to and then down the Rabbit Hole with no ending in site (unless you buy book 2). Hate books like this that employ this marketing tool.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Scott & Shelley McLean
- 2019-10-01
Slow start but gets better
Sorry starts out slow but picks up after a few chapters. The two different time periods are well handled and the two stories well combined.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Laura
- 2019-04-08
I enjoyed it, but I’m pissed about the ending
This book was truly addicting. I loved it. Right up until the end when the author literally says “to be continued.”
It kinda pissed me off. There was no resolution, just open ended questions leading the reader to believe that one person is probably the murderer (but let’s be honest that person likely didn’t do it).
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Gwendolyn Robinson
- 2019-04-08
Truly Devious
Very engrossing. Keeps you guessing as to what’s going to happen next however the ending is a let down. You never find out what happens.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Cami H
- 2019-02-04
Good
I liked the story.
I didn’t like the narrator though. All of her male voices were so goofy and the same.
I loved the 1930s part of the story most.
Bummed with the cliff hanger ending.
Hated all (well, most) of the names in the book. So many were so tacky, but whatever, not a huge deal.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kevin Savage
- 2018-09-06
Great Story
Great mystery, but all of the male characters sounded too similar to me. It was tough to distinguish which character was speaking.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Sara Blanco
- 2018-05-22
Brilliant YA mystery. I absolutely loved it.
Rich setting and characters, truly puzzling mysteries and riddles, and a perfectly balanced treatment of adolescence along the way.
2 of 4 people found this review helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kristin Krahenbuhl
- 2018-03-15
Different narrator next time
Overall I liked this story but the narrator drove me NUTS! The are quite a few different male characters and she had the same voice for all of them.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful