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    Truly Devious: A Mystery
    Truly Devious: A Mystery
    Truly Devious: A Mystery
    Audiobook10 hours

    Truly Devious: A Mystery

    Written by Maureen Johnson

    Narrated by Kate Rudd

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    New York Times bestselling 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 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. 

    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.

    Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018 * Junior Library Guild Selection * 2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * 2019 ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination * Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018 * Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018 * 2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner * Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018 * Lincoln Award Nominee * 2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee * 2020 Pennsylvania Young Readers' Choice Award Winner

    Editor's Note

    Intricate mystery…

    Welcome to Ellingham Academy, a school for gifted students to flourish in a sprawling, beautiful setting, marred by two murders (one unsolved cold case, another in the present day). YA pro Johnson plants many intriguing clues in this intricate mystery series start.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherKatherine Tegen Books
    Release dateJan 16, 2018
    ISBN9780062822000
    Author

    Maureen Johnson

    Maureen Johnson is the bestselling author of several novels, including 13 Little Blue Envelopes, the Truly Devious series, the Suite Scarlett series, and the Shades of London series. She has also written collaborative works such as Let It Snow with John Green and Lauren Myracle and the Bane Chronicles with Cassandra Clare and Sarah Rees Brennan. Maureen lives in New York and online on Twitter @maureenjohnson or at maureenjohnsonbooks.com. 

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    Reviews for Truly Devious

    4/5

    1,761 ratings70 reviews

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I really really wanted to enjoy this book more. I loved the storyline and it grabbed me at first. However, it’s a student who is trying to figure out a cold Murder case 90 years ago. Anyway, it became to staccato for me and my interest waned as a result.
    • 4/5
      Really really enjoyed it. Cant wait to start the next book in the series
    • 3/5
      Not one of my favorites. Felt a little lackluster for me. ?‍♀️
    • 4/5
      It’s pretty good, the pacing was kind of weird but it had a good cliffhanger
    • 5/5
      This series left me wondering what on earth do I do with my life without it?!
      I hope she writes more.
      If you have any hesitation about reading, don’t. Just do it and thank me later!
    • 5/5
      this is one of the best books i’ve read all year. the audiobook was amazing to pair with ?!! i honestly can’t quite decipher my feelings rn but wow
    • 5/5
      I loved how real Stevie felt. hearing her thoughts it made her sound like an actual teenager.
    • 2/5
      Don’t really know what to rate this. I don’t exactly understand all the hype. And it wasn’t that thrilling and I find that I didn’t care about the mystery. The present day one anyways. Maybe book 2 is better but I don’t know about continuing…
    • 5/5
      Super fun! Nancy drew goes to a non magic Hogwarts where murder and mysteries are abound. Brilliant, couldn't put it down!
    • 5/5
      Intriguing story about a young woman whose deductive reasoning leads her through mystery within a mystery. Truly endearing characters. Can’t wait for the next one.
    • 5/5
      An excellent young adult mystery novel with a really clever plot and also great and realistic characters. Be warned, it ends on a cliffhanger!
      Have to say I wasn't a big fan of the narrator. She had a weird quirk of overpronouncing everything and not using the normal schwa vowel, which made her sound a bit robotic. She was good at voices though, and I got used to the robot thing after a while.
    • 4/5
      It took me about a month to get into this book. The beginning was super boring for me. I couldn't pay attention to it. I was already deciding I wouldn't be picking up the next book. Once I got to 200 pages it started picking up.

      I had a hard time getting close to Stevie but I did enjoyed that little romance. ???
      Well after that I FINALLY got into it and I just wanted to know more and more.
      The last sentence in this book left me in shock.

      Now that I finished it my feelings have change and I did enjoyed it ... and I am going to read the next book. LoL ??
    • 1/5
      Es que no tiene sentido. Se supone que el misterio de este libro es descubrir al asesino, no al padre random de este chico. WTF? Entiendo que es el primero de una saga pero IGUAL? Alguna respuesta al menos? De la nada había una sospecha y luego *nada*? No cierran nada con este libro? Osea dejen un cliffhanger pero sobre el misterio no este cliffhanger WTF este libro no vale la pena tu tiempo
    • 5/5
      Good book. Agatha Christi she is not but thankfully neither is she Baldacci in that it is a first person murder and not a police story.
    • 3/5
      A well written story with a fun premise and great narration. The story is kind of/kind of not split into two parts. We follow Stevie bell and the mystery of the present and also have chapters delving into the mysterious of the past, all focused around a boarding school for the elite (whether that be intelligence or wealth really depends on which character you feel like picking apart).

      I must say the idea of a second book seems fun (albeit maybe unnecessary as I feel this could have had a few additions to it and made a great one shot piece of work) and I’ll definitely pick it up BUT I feel the best parts of this story were regarding the past mystery/mysterious of the school and not the present with our protagonist.
    • 5/5
      Holy crap, I loved this! I need the next book right now! Stevie is amazing and Maureen Johnson is a brilliant writer.
    • 4/5
      Without the very little amount of politics in this book I'd rate it 4.5 stars. Love the boarding school, the characters seem pretty well developed, the story is good. I would prefer chapter 1 and all the 1936 story line to have started later in the book , maybe with our heroine explaining why she came to the school. I still feel like chapter one isn't hugely important to the story line. Book 2 may fix that.
    • 4/5
      This story was good! I loved the mystery and Stevie was a great main character. What I didn't like as much was the romance, it felt kind of forced to me. The ending was a little anti climactic and ended in a cliffhanger. It does make me want to read the next book pretty badly. I do like that the story wasn't forced into one book because it really does feel like it goes deep and that everything is connected.
    • 3/5
      What the hell is that ending?! All this waiting and literally nothin!
    • 5/5
      I LOVED IT. I DIDNT EXPECT TO, BUT I LOVED IT, AND I WANT A SEQUEL RIGHT NOW!!!!
    • 4/5
      The ending was maddening :) but I REALLY enjoyed this book ??
    • 4/5
      4.5/5 STARS

      Really enjoyed this! Much more than I thought I would. I love crime/mystery novels and this one was a great young adult one.
      A little slow to start but that didn’t last long. Spent time going between the time of the Ellingham kidnapping and the present day when Stevie is at the school. And I’ll be honest, I’m not usually a fan of multi-time books, like switching between time periods but I really enjoyed it in this one. You got to see how the Truly Devious crime happened and what went down. We also got to see what the police and other authorities did in the aftermath; the arrests, trial and how Albert Ellingham felt during all of this.

      I really loved Stevie as a main character. She was smart and strong and was so sure of herself. She didn’t let it get to her when people said things about her passion for crime and mystery and that was so good the read. I loved the side characters too! Janelle – gorgeous and I adored her romance in the book and hope it gets more development in book 2. Nate – the little hermit with a good heart; he’s such a sweetie and I need to see more of him! I just want to see all the developments these characters will go through!
      I’m also all about the possible romance that may happen as the series continues. If Stevie ends up with who I want her to than I’m a keen bean!

      Just loved it. Great plot, great setting and such lovable characters. Need book two already! Can’t wait to get back with Stevie to find out who ‘Truly Devious’ is!
    • 5/5
      I'm not going to pretend that this is the world's next best novel, but I really enjoyed it. I like how it flipped back and forth between the 1930s and present day. I wasn't tracking that it is a series, so I didn't anticipate the "to be continued" ending. but I will pick up the next one and continue with the story.
    • 1/5
      This wasn’t the mystery I signed up for. First of all, nothing got resolved (except the identity of Truly Devious if you want)... 1.5 stars because I loved the back and forth between present and past and having the past part be so inconclusive made me felt cheated. Nothing really happened until past the middle and then Stevie solved her own mystery in like 20% of the book and the Truly Devious basically in the last pages. The characters were not that deep for me to get invested in them... that’s why I was rooting for the mystery that was left unresolved and not satisfying at all.
    • 4/5
      4.5 stars.

      A but of a slow burn, but once it picked up? It flew!

      I actually really liked David and Nate. Nate stole my heart a little when he asked Stevie to the dance as a friend to help her.

      The mystery weaving and interviews and that Steveie wants to be a detective and just all of, all of it, was SO DAMN GOOD.

      I wasn't expecting it to be as engaging as it was.

      I am going right into the sequel!
    • 4/5
      I loved the first book. I really enjoyed it. If course it ended with a huge cliffhanger.
    • 5/5
      It was very interesting and well written! Can’t wait for next book!
    • 4/5
      3.5 stars. it was ok but nothing special and the ending was just meh
    • 5/5
      Brilliantly narrated and beautifully paced, this mystery has a twist: its protagonist LOVES a good mystery novel.

      I wanted to hang out with Stevie and her friends working everything out together, and when the cliffhanger ending arrived, I couldn’t believe I was already through the whole book!
    • 4/5
      4.5 I am so confused what is happening ahhhhh also Nate is my spirit animal and David can fuck off