Truly Devious—Maureen Johnson

I was lucky enough to be granted early access to this e-galley through Edelweiss. I first encountered Maureen Johnson as a guest John on Vlogbrothers when he was out on paternity leave. I now follow her on Twitter and have devoured her Shades of London trilogy and also enjoyed The Bermudez Triangle. So when I heard about this new book, and specifically about the opportunity to get a chance to read it early, I desperately wanted to read it.

Now, I kind of wish I'd waited because it ends on a "to be continued." WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME, MAUREEN?! WHY DID YOU WRITE THE GOOD THING AND THEN LEAVE ME HANGING?! Now I not only have to wait until the book is officially released in January, I also then have to wait even longer for at least the second book, and potentially the third book before I get to the end of this story!

Sixteen year old Stevie has been granted admission to the prestigious Ellingham School, a school for gifted students to attend for free, founded by an eccentric tycoon eight decades earlier. Stevie is a true crime junkie who wants to be a detective, and she's already pretty gifted at deduction and sleuthing. The reason that she applied to Ellingham is because of her fascination with a case that started there: the kidnapping of Iris and Alice Ellingham (wealthy Albert Ellingham's wife and daughter) and the disappearance of an Ellingham student, Dorothy. All that was left behind was an ominous, riddle-filled note signed "Truly, Devious." Both Iris and Dorothy's bodies were later found, but Alice was never discovered. When Stevie arrives, she knows that what she wants to accomplish in her two years there is to solve the crime. But things get a bit off track when one of her housemates/classmates is discovered dead in a tunnel that was only recently excavated. Though it at first looks to be a tragic accident, something doesn't seem right to Stevie, and she works to discover the truth.

As I said, I devoured Maureen Johnson's Shades of London series (The Name of the Star, The Madness Underneath, and The Shadow Cabinet), and this has similar elements of suspense and mystery, but it was lovely to get to see a different facet of Maureen's writing since there are no supernatural aspects at play in Truly Devious; there were in the Shades of London.

Stevie was the kind of sixteen-year-old I always kind of hoped I was: passionate, intelligent, skilled, nerdy, a bit socially and romantically inept, awkward, well-read, sarcastic. (Okay, I was definitely those last five things, it's the first three that I wasn't so sure about as a teenager.) It feels like a pretty good mix of traits. I also appreciate that she sometimes makes what a reader might consider the wrong choice—for example, continuing to pursue what she imagines might be a murderer rather than talking to police about what she knows or snooping around in the room of the boy she made out with—because that makes her even more realistic to me.

The story is told in two time periods: in 1936, sharing pieces of information from the original crimes, and then in "present day" with Stevie and her experiences. The balance of suspense and mystery with discernible solutions to unknowns was practically perfect. The use of riddles adds another element that is perfect for fans of true crime—I'm going to be noodling over the big one (still unsolved in the book by the cliffhanger ending) because I WILL figure it out—and for those who enjoy mystery stories that you as the reader have all of the clues to solve, if you so desire.

The structure and design of the story (thus far—THANKS AGAIN FOR THE SUSPENSE, MAUREEN) are well crafted, and the weaving of character development and mini-romance plotline among the mystery was dynamite. The worldbuilding of the Ellingham school was natural and I felt like I immediately could picture it and the kind of students who would exist in that world without feeling like it was being dwelled on.

I would recommend this to fans of true crime, mysteries, young adult, Murderinos, and/or Maureen Johnson fans. If you're not a huge young adult fan but are looking for some entry points that are maybe not focused on young adult romance, this is also a good bet. But maybe y'all will want to wait until we get a bit closer to the second book coming out so you don't have to live on the precipice for quite so long.