Author Maureen Johnson weaves a tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a new series.
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.

Stevie’s parents always wanted to have a normal daughter – one that dates hot boys, goes to prom and spends her free time shopping. Instead, they are stuck with a crime-obsessed genius who got in prestige school for geniuses like her – Ellingham Academy. That is a special school founded by American billionaire Albert Ellingham in 1928. It is built for the purposes of educating teenagers with special skills or knowledge in any area of interest, being specialized and personalized for their needs.

Namely, Ellingham’s academy is known for one other thing. In 1936, Albert’s wife and daughter, Iris and Alice Ellingham, were kidnapped. Iris’s body was found days later and Alice was never seen after that. Few weeks before those events, a threat-letter in the form of a riddle arrived signed “Truly, Devious” and is widely believed that the letter is connected to the case. The Ellingham case is one of the most known cold cases and hasn’t been solved to this day.

Stevie knows everything about the Ellingham case and dreams of solving it. After she got accepted to Ellingham academy, series of suspicious events lead her onto a new trail, but after finding a dead body of one of her fellow students, the cold case isn’t the only thing that needs solving.


It’s been a while since I read a good mystery book and I can’t believe how much I missed it! When I was younger, I was basically swallowing Agatha Christie books, and the thrill of solving mysteries and theorizing about this book made me want to start reading them way more often. I was really invested in two parallel cases that were emerging through the plot. They both seemed somehow connected, but still separated, and in the end, I had no idea what to think. Johnson really surprised me with her skilled writing and plotting of two time-disconnected, but obviously related and equally mysterious cases. Stevie is a mastermind, but still an amateur detective so reading from her perspective differs from adult crime novels I used to read, especially because she can’t use law enforcement assets and has to sneak around half of the time, but it was still so much fun thinking about someone my age simultaneously solving a cold kidnapping case and a murder.



The pacing and obvious absence of solid action represented a hell of a big problem for me. Yes, I am aware that this is a short mystery book and is not intended to be packed with action, but for the first half of the book (I counted it was 50%!), NOTHING was happening. There was Stevie, and Ellingham Academy and a lot of Stevie accommodating to her new school or talking about the case –it all felt like a boring intro. Sure, there should be an intro and all, but that doesn’t mean you make it half of the first book. They were literally filming a video for 100 pages. Only after the discovery of the body did things start to heat up.

The story is told from the first-person perspective of one character – Stevie, which is, huh, funny because of all characters I liked her the least. Idk I don’t have a real reason, just found her character boring from time to time. It’s super interesting being inside her head while solving mysteries and I loved how was the relationship with her dick-parents described, although I don’t see why hasn’t she ever stood up for herself. By all means, she sounds like an interesting protagonist, but I just didn’t get that vibe of fondness towards her.

The love interest comes in the form of hot mess David, who is, really, something I didn’t realize I needed in this book. He’s obnoxious and does not give a fuck, but is the sweetest cinnamon roll and I’m done. I love this tension and love-to-hate between Stevie and him – it’s just constructed really good, with a lot of fluff and suspense, but still not too much so it’s not pulling around xd

I need Nate to become an actual person so I can marry him because he is THE ETERNAL MOOD. Sarcastic, socially awkward and eternally pessimistic author who would rather do anything that actually writes. Perfect. (I think he’s the embodiment of anyone who tried to write anything, ever).


And then there’s Larry, who is supposed to be just a side character but is probably the coolest person in Ellingham. He’s everyone’s official dad detective and no one can tell me otherwise!



That cliffhanger, NO! that several weird-as-fuck but utterly amazing cliffhangers left me breathless, craving for the sequel so I guess I better got onto that xd

“Look! A riddle! Time for fun!

Should we use a rope or gun?

Knives are sharp and gleam so pretty

Poison’s slow, which is a pity

Fire is festive, drowning’s slow

Hanging’s a ropy way to go

A broken head, a nasty fall

A car colliding with a wall

Bombs make a very jolly noise

Such ways to punish naughty boys!

What shall we use? We can’t decide.

Just like you cannot run or hide.

Ha ha.

Truly,

Devious” 

(Sorry I just needed to add Truly Devious letter to this review because it’s simply brilliant :P)