Mystery Monday! Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

Title: Truly Devious
Author: Maureen Johnson
Page Count: 432
Rating: B+
Format Read: Kindle
Genre: YA Mystery
Keywords: Sleuth, Anxiety, Murder
Kid Appropriate: Yes

Synopsis from Goodreads:

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.

My Review:

I really wanted to give this one a five star review. It is addicting, fun, and Stevie is a great protagonist. Her obsession with murder and solving crimes completely reminds me of myself as a teenager and I could empathize with her anxiety attacks as someone suffering with anxiety myself. The cast of supporting characters are not necessarily realistic but definitely memorable.

While I did have fun, there were parts of this story that just did not add up or felt unnatural to the progression of the story. I am not a huge fan of when characters or circumstances are so out of place that they temporarily jog you out of the story. It truly disrupts the reading experience. Despite this I fully intend to continue on in this series. Definitely check it out if you're looking for a fun, not too mentally taxing, murder mystery though.

I would recommend this one for fans of the Charlotte Holmes series (book 1 is A Study in Charlotte)