Truly Devious

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson is the beginning of a fairly recent series featuring an elite New England boarding school with a haunting mystery from the early 20th century. In "Truly Devious," a cryptic poem haunts Ellingham Academy for decades, setting the stage for mystery and tragedy. Set in a remote mountain academy near Burlington, Vermont, the story intertwines past and present as Stevie Bell, a talented young sleuth, uncovers secrets surrounding a kidnapping and murder that occurred decades earlier. With a cast of unique students and faculty, the novel navigates through layers of suspense, intrigue, and a chilling atmosphere, as Stevie races to solve the cold case while grappling with present-day challenges and dangers at the academy.

Now initially, this book was marketed to me by both book influencers and the ads for the book themselves as something akin to an Agatha Christie novel. To that I say, this is the farthest possible thing to an Agatha Christie novel on writing quality alone. Before I get into it, I'm going to try to be as civil as possible but to hear the way I talk about this, head to the podcast check out Episode 2. 

A lot of things in this book are very disjointed and lose relevancy almost immediately. Most of the characters are severely unlikable and I don't see myself rooting for any one of them. For one, the love interests for Stevie make no sense with one being teased and then abandoned for another, which I blame on the author just forgetting her original point. Stevie doesn't actually do much solving and spends most of her time vaguely surrounded by paper and re-listening to the same 3 podcasts about the case.

There's a moment where we potentially see a sign from Truly Devious themself flash up onto Stevie's bedroom wall. That in itself sets the rest of the book up for some interesting investigating and theories. The problem is that this is completely forgotten less than 5 pages later and never mentioned again. This begs the question, why add it in the first place if it's going to be a throw-away clue with no actually impact on the events unfolding. 

Now, onto some of the more redeeming qualities. The writing is very descriptive at times and there's plenty of examples of good imagery throughout. A lot of the interactions between Stevie, her parents, and her friends are realistic for their age. And despite the unnecessary romance that is quite literally shoehorned into the book, many of the character stay true to themselves over the course of the story.

Final thoughts? The writing is descriptive and the characters are well written, if unlikable. Aside from that, I was wildly disappointed by the jarring lack of substance in this book and don't plan on continuing the series. For a more detailed run-down of my distaste for this book check out Episode 2: Truly Devious. 

See you next time dear customer, and happy reading!