All Stevie Bell wanted was to find the key to the Ellingham mystery, but instead, she found her classmate dead. And while she solved that murder, the crimes of the past are still waiting in the dark. Just as Stevie feels she’s on the cusp of putting it together, her parents pull her out of Ellingham academy.
For her own safety, they say. She must move past this obsession with crime. Now that Stevie’s away from the school of topiaries and secret tunnels, and her strange and endearing friends, she begins to feel disconnected from the rest of the world. At least she won’t have to see David anymore. David, who she kissed. David, who lied to her about his identity—son of despised politician Edward King. Then King himself arrives at her house to offer a deal: He will bring Stevie back to Ellingham immediately. In return, she must play nice with David. King is in the midst of a campaign and can’t afford his son stirring up trouble. If Stevie’s at school, David will stay put.
The tantalizing riddles behind the Ellingham murders are still waiting to be unraveled, and Stevie knows she’s so close. But the path to the truth has more twists and turns than she can imagine—and moving forward involves hurting someone she cares for. In New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson’s second novel of the Truly Devious series, nothing is free, and someone will pay for the truth with their life.

“All the money, all the power—none of it compares to a good book. A book gives you everything. It gives you a window into other souls, other worlds.” 

In the second installment of Johnson’s Truly Devious trilogy, things are getting even more complicated, if that is even possible. Ellie has disappeared and took the only hope Stevie had of finding out what happened to Heyes. However, Stevie found something in Ellie’s room – a box with a picture and a poem, which is actual proof and significantly changes the perspective on the Ellingham case. Stevie is determined to solve the case and motivated more than ever, but the problem is, she is no longer there. After finding out about what happened, her parents took Stevie back to Pittsburgh, back to her normal school and normal life.

After a few weeks of getting used to the old routine, Stevie gets a call from her parents’ employer, senator Edward King, a man she despises from the bottom of her soul. Despite the fact that she cannot stand the man, Stevie finds herself accepting his offer of letting him persuade her parents to take her back to Ellingham’s Academy, in exchange for “keeping an eye” on his son, David. As thrilled as she is to be back and work on the case, Stevie has a lot more problems than she thought she’d face. The ever-growing pile of questions does not get smaller, and aside from the stuff for school she also has to organize a mess that her love life has become.

I don’t know why, but I haven’t noticed how good Johnson’s writing was, before starting the second book. I practically swallowed this book and kept thinking and theorizing about it as soon as I had to part with it. Careful pacing and fluidity of Johnson’s writing made it easy to follow a course of the story that covers two cases that seemingly have nothing to do with each other, but have more overlaps than anyone would think. I was pulled into a mix of chapters from Stevie’s perspective and 1936 retrospectives covering events connected to the famous Ellingham case.

Being inside Stevie’s mind while she works on the case brings so much fun and nostalgia for classic crime novels and I immensely enjoyed it. The story is mysterious and well-developed, giving on just enough details to keep it intriguing, and yet not too severe to make it unrealistic. It’s combines the right amount of detective skill, mystery and luck an amateur detective should have :)

Even though I read this book is fluid and easy to read I still felt the plot was a little bit too stretched out. The plot thickens compared with the first book, but still, I wouldn’t complain if there was more case solving or chasing criminals instead of shitty attempts of making a romantic tension by just pulling David and Stevie around.

I really hope their relationship will take a different turn because I really liked the two of them in the first book, but after so much unnecessary drama and will-they-won’t-they pulling around, I got bored of the drama and just wanted them to leave each other alone. As I mentioned before, I am not entirely fond of Stevie and her actions. It just feels like she’s half absent in life generally half of the time and she gets so annoying with some of her decisions.

Other characters remain casual and cool, except Nate who is the ultimate love of my life with his moods. And, of course, let’s not forget to give a big shoutout to Larry who adopted half of the academy and is basically saving everyone’s ass xd

I need to get my hands on the next book NOW because that the cliffhanger was SO INSANE. Just, woah. I have so many thoughts rampaging through my head and I want to make theories, but I also don’t want to ruin the thrill for myself and I don’t know what to do ajshjdka Happy reading everyone I’m off to have a breakdown.

“The real magic rocks are the friends we make along the way.”