🌟🌟🌟🌟 out of 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
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.
I was hesitant to read this because of all of the hype and I thought that the historical element would take over the story. I have to say that Truly Devious is worth some of the praise and hype that it received. I wouldn't say that I'm in love with the book as a whole but it scratched the itch that I had to read a good, solid YA mystery/thriller.
I thought that the author did a good job of making the story current without getting bogged down into the historical aspect of the story. Maureen Johnson switches between the past and current time in a fluid manner which adds to the plot of the book. I enjoyed getting the chapters from the past regarding the cold case. I was adding up the clues and the suspects as I went along.
There were quite a few likable characters but only two of them stuck with me. I enjoyed being in Stevie's head. She was an interesting character because she was very intelligent but that could get into her way at times when she tried to interact with other students. I think that she was like Sherlock Holmes due to the way that she was so in tune with picking out clues but dislike him also because she seemed to want to have relationships with people. David was another character in the book that I found intriguing simply for the fact that he has a ruff exterior to him and lies about nearly everything to do with his life. Ellie also made an impression on me but it was not the good kind. I was happy when there were chapters where Stevie didn't spend time with her because I found her so incredibly annoying.
I didn't see the ending or the primary suspect coming. They both came as a surprise to me so I hope that the author will give more hints and details in the sequel to help me understand how both of those conclusions were reached. I hate cliff hanger endings and knowing that that was how the book would end going into the read didn't help. There is usually a solid conclusion reached at the end of these kinds of books so I'm a somewhat out of my element with Truly Devious. I will definitely be reading the sequel to find out what happens with the cases and Stevie.
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