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 Thoughts
(While wanting to create new content I want to publish some old posts that I never got around to. This is an old review that I’ve been meaning to post for months.)
May was the month of Mystery for me. Maybe it was my decision to finally binge the second season of Riverdale or maybe the fog that had taken over the London sky at the time(how cliche, I know), but mystery was all I was in the mood for. When I came upon Truly Devious, about a girl who is obsessed with mysteries enrolling in a Boarding School to solve one of the most famous murders in 1930s’ America, I was instantly intrigued. It was my first Maureen Johnson book and it definitely left an impression. It was exactly the quirky, dark, boarding school murder-mystery that I craved.
Truly Devious follows Stevie Bell’s move to the Ellington Academy, where only the most brilliant kids in their field (whether it is science, arts or journalism) can get in. Her purpose is one, solve the kidnapping and murder of Albert Ellington’s family that happened in 1936 in that very Boarding school. But, of course, nothing is ever that easy, so when a new murder takes place in the Ellington Academy, Stevie wonders if there is more to the story than what people generally believe.
The back and forth between present time and 1936 was something I enjoyed immensely as we ended up following two mysteries taking place in two different timelines. Both story lines felt equally indulging and they were woven together in a very elegant way, with the 1930s story-line explaining some present mysteries while also allowing the reader to search for clues on their own. In a way, I felt like I was trying to solve the mystery along with Stevie and not just watching it unfold. What added to my experience was Ellington’s eclectic nature and the glamorous 1930s version of it that was filled with scandals and parties. Maureen’s imagination opened a door to two different worlds connecting them with the perfect mystery in such a mesmerizing way that that I didn’t know which story I loved the most; watching the murder unfold first-hand or following Stevie’s journey in solving it.
A trait to be noticed in Truly Devious was how well Stevie’s personality shone through. When we’re introduced to Stevie she has read every mystery novel out there, from Agatha Cristie to Sherlock Holmes. She is a smart, meticulous and extremely witty girl who believes in her passion and does not back down despite the people around her not taking it seriously. She kind of reminded me of Kami from Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan. What I loved most was that her character didn’t just consist of her passion about murders; she was also a teenage girl, with the same confusion and hormones as any other girl her age. She also suffered from anxiety attacks and had parents that loved her but didn’t necessarily understand her. She wasn’t overly mature, she had flaws and made mistakes, what you would expect from a teen still figuring out herself but with a sharp mind and a taste for solving cases.
I also loved how quirky and unique every secondary character that we were introduced to was. Stevie’s flatmates, and the entire student body, all stood out for both their eclectic style and personality. But, being a mystery novel with every one potentially belonging in the suspect list, we never learn too much about a character, which somehow didn’t make them feel one-dimensional but attributed to the enigma of the story. Being the first book in a trilogy, I’m excited to learn more about their backstory, especially all the second year students and their previous experiences and secrets about the academy. My favorite secondary characters though have to be the two people closest to Stevie, and naturally the most fleshed out; Janele, a cute inventor girl with a taste for vibrant clothing and girls, and Nate, a suffering writer (who I think all of us writers can relate to) that I’m also subtly shipping with Stevie because he understands her in so many levels and their scenes are some of my favorite moments.
Of course, where there are teenagers in YA there’s almost always the promise of romance. In Truly Devious, the romance was depicted in the form of attraction in the beginning stages of a relationship which I appreciated greatly. Stevie and David have an immediate chemistry which leads to some fairly entertaining scenes. Their romance was very refreshing and maybe a personal favorite for the sole reason that it did not contain the typical YA trope with lines like ‘You make me feel…’, ‘I feel a pull to you that I can’t resist’ or even ‘I’m in love with you’ after 150 pages. It was written more in the lines of ‘I like you, you like me, let’s make out’. And, sometimes, ladies and gentlemen, that’s all a teenage relationship in the beginning stages is about.
The only thing I would complaint about, is the unfolding of the plot. I loved the way the mystery was introduced and how we were granted small pieces of the truth from the Ellington murder gradually until the event of the second murder and suddenly everything started to entwine and we had two mysteries on our hands. Yet, in the end, despite that nicely done cliffhanger, I would have wanted the story to have ended with us knowing a bit more than what we were left with. In the end the story felt, like the introduction to the real mystery and not a considerable portion of it. Maybe that is due to its being the first book in a trilogy but it certainly left the impression that there should have been a little more.
In spite of that, I enjoyed every minute of murder-investigating and navigating through this strange school with Stevie. The promise of murder, the enchanting 1930s and Stevie’s detective knowledge left me circling the publication date of the second book in my calendar as soon as I reached the final page. Trust me, you want to read this book.
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
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