The Truly, Devious Series by Maureen Johnson

Truly, Devious:⭐⭐⭐

The Vanishing Stair:⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Hand on the Wall: ⭐⭐⭐

Read if you like: Nancy Drew vibes, checking out secret tunnels against your better judgement, drama because of murder in the same sentence as drama because of teen romance

Reading goal: 5/100 (progress is being made, folks!)

It's your lucky day folks, today we have a 3-for-1 book review special! Maureen Johnson's Truly, Devious Series follows aspiring detective and true crime junkie Stevie Bell on her quest to solve the cold case of the century. Stevie's story starts as she is accepted to the prestigious Ellingham Academy, a school shining with elitism and shrouded in mystery, best known as the backdrop to the kidnapping of founder Arthur Ellingham's wife and daughter and subsequent murder of an Ellingham student, a case that remains unsolved. Stevie, who is, well, obsessed with the case, plans to solve the unsolvable crime. As Stevie, with the help of some new friends, begins to uncover the mysteries of Ellingham, she quickly learns that not everything is as it seems, and danger lurks around every corner. When her investigation turns deadly, Stevie finds that she has two cases to solve, and she begins to fear that the perils of the past may still be very much alive within the walls of Ellingham.

Before we get started, I feel like I have to admit something... I am a huge baby when it comes to true crime type content. I watched too much Dateline in my formative years, and now any murder podcast or serial killer documentary causes me to sleep with my lights on. The issue is, I love mysteries. I love the twists and turns, I love being shocked as the detective lays out the facts, I love (usually incorrectly) guessing the culprit, and then changing my mind every few pages. But I hate reading about gruesome murder, so I'm sure you can see the predicament I am in.

All of that to say, the Truly Devious Series is my favorite kind of mystery in that it is just campy, just fun, just ridiculous enough that I was not thinking about death the whole time. The setting really shines throughout the story. Ellingham Academy is the kind of place with secret passages and deep, dark tunnels, and many other safety hazards that high schools should not have. It's secluded high up in the Vermont mountains and feels very far from society. It has a history of mystery and mayhem. A recipe for dark and twisty disaster, if you will.

Johnson takes this setting, and fills it with eccentric teenagers with various interests and talents, and varying levels of good judgement and morals. Some, I absolutely adored (Nate), and others I had a borderline unhealthy dislike for (David). I couldn't tell you if I liked Stevie or not, but I find her incredibly believable for a teenage girl that is obsessed with true crime. She reminded me a bit of my sister, who once watched a documentary on the Zodiac Killer and is now convinced she knows who did it (Hi, Anna). An elite school filled with extraordinary students, at least for me, can easily become pretentious, and sometimes in the series it does, but mostly it is fun.

Johnson also writes with a split narrative, one following Stevie, and one following Arthur Ellingham as the case unfolds in the 1930s. I loved this, as it created a sense of dramatic irony. I knew answers Stevie didn't, and I wanted to scream them at her, but how was she to know? She wasn't there. Overall, I liked this series, particularly the second book, The Vanishing Stair. There were twists I didn't see coming, and they kept me reading late into the night. However, I was a little let down by the resolution, and felt the third book did not live up to the momentum created in the first two (I will say no more out of the fear of spoiling the mystery of it all). While I was not blown away by the final reveal, I did really enjoy the journey. Truly, Devious was a fun read, there's no question about that.