Review: Truly Devious

Truly Devious
Rating: 5/5
Buy or Borrow: Buy
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

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. 

So, if you've been following me for a while, you'll know I love Maureen's Shades of London series and I've been seriously anticipating the next book, but then Maureen was like "no no no, I've got a new book" and you know....I'll let her off making me wait longer because I love her books and this sounded completely brilliant...and it was! It has the creepiness and super genius plot threads I've come to expect from Maureen! 

Truly Devious has an incredibly creepy start that sets the tone for the book as you're hit with an instant sense of foreboding during the flashback that doesn't quite go away as you read. You know something is going to happen and you end up on edge as you wait for it to all start. 

The book is set in both the past and present as we shoot back to the night of the crime throughout the book which adds doses of creepy and foreboding while the story in the present gets going. It also gives you pieces of the mystery as you get snapshots of events and points of view. You also get some interesting FBI interviews with the people in the house at the time and you just know something is off and that someone is hiding something but you don't know what. 

Truly Devious is vivid and most definitely atmospheric. It's super creepy at points and it has a nice leisurely pace as it pulls you in, putting the basics out there and the embellishing them with more detail as you get more snapshots of the past or more little tidbits. Sometimes even just a word or sentence changed what you thought you already knew. 

As for the characters, I loved Stevie. She was different, and fun and a huge crime nerd. She particularly enjoys Sherlock Holmes, which you know...can relate! Her family kind of struggles to handle how different she is, and I found her to be relatable and easy to empathise with. I rooted for her too, she's definitely intelligent! She's also a nice middle between her two friends! Janelle who's bright and sunny, and Nate who's hilariously grumpy. Can relate Nate, can relate! My new favourite book quote was provided by Nate, "Sometimes you have to leave the fucking Shire, Frodo" I need it on a t-shirt, mug, pillow, throw blanket...everything. 

There's an interesting supporting cast, Hayes was such a prat and he was a YouTube star. The two are not related by the way. YouTubers are lovely! David was originally down in my notes as ahole 2, but I ended up kind of liking him...but I was also still suspicious of him. I couldn't quite tell at one point if I ended up liking him because Stevie did! Vi, Ellie and so on where a colourful and interesting group of characters. They where an eclectic bunch! The same can also be said for the characters from the past like Flora and Leo and so on! 

To be honest as we met each new character I was eyeing them up as either a potential victim or a suspect, both in the past and the present timelines. The storytelling fits so well with old mystery novels like Holmes and Poirot and so on! It really is brilliantly written, as expected of Maureen! She throws in her own unique twist but I really did love her writing style for this one, it fit so well with Stevie and her love of mystery novels and was genuinely like reading an old school mystery novel. 

You're given clues and pieces of the puzzle throughout the book both in the past and the present. You see what characters where doing on the night of the kidnapping and you have to try and puzzle it together. I may not be the smartest person in the world but I have never missed an episode of Criminal Minds, and you bet your ass I was trying to figure it out using all that show has taught me. I have a couple of suspects but I feel like they're too obvious...and then I figured that might throw me off and they where supposed to be obvious if that makes sense? Basically I have no idea still. 

Throughout the entire book, I was genuinely on edge and hyper aware of every word used or not used, and everything even a little bit suspicious throughout the book. I mentally noted everything down, I don't think I've ever paid such close attention to a book before. 

As we head towards the end of the book, you can sense something coming, and the tension is ramped up! As the plot thickens, there's an explosive reveal that I really didn't see coming. Like my Suspect Number 2 for Truly Devious, I was questioning myself on because they where barely mentioned and then the reveal happens and one of Stevie's classmates I'm assuming is related to them and I CANNOT DEAL WITH THE CLIFFHANGER! I have so many questions. What's the answer to the riddle? Who's in the photo? What's going on!? I can't take it. Feel free to message me to talk theories because I'm still not over this book and I seriously need to talk it all out!