Truly Devious cover art

Truly Devious

A Mystery

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Truly Devious

By: Maureen Johnson
Narrated by: Kate Rudd
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About this listen

New York Times best-selling author Maureen Johnson weaves a delicate tale of murder and mystery in the first book of a striking new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.

Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It was founded by Albert Ellingham, an early 20th 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.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless quest for the murderers in books two and three.

Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2018

Junior Library Guild Selection

2019 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination

2019 ALA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nomination

Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books 2018

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Young Adult Fiction 2018

2018 Nerdy Book Club Young Adult Winner

Seventeen Best YA Book of 2018

Lincoln Award Nominee

2020-2021 South Carolina Book Awards Nominee

©2018 HarperCollins Publishers (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Crime Fiction Horror Literature & Fiction Murder Mysteries & Detectives Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Thrillers & Suspense Scary Cold Case Technology Detective

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All stars
Most relevant  
Ok First, why isn’t this book more popular wtf? It’s so incredible I wanna scream. LIKE HELLO?!?!? So mad at myself cos I usually buy book series all at once but I recently stopped doing that and now I gotta wait to read the next book😭 second thing, I read a couple reviews of the audio book before listening and saw quite a few people say that it sounded robotic and like am I stupid or is that on purpose? I mean idk if I’m projecting but our girl Stevie is very obviously crap at picking up on social clues and is very likely neurodivergent…I just figured it was her way of talking, the blatantness of the way she spoke weather she is being sarcastic, joking, being dead series or any other possibility…I think the deadpan of the narration honestly made the book that much more better and real/relatable for me. I honestly loved it…seriously tho, that ending was criminal. C.R.I.M.I.N.A.L

Incredible.

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I loved this book had me hooked the hole way through but the cliff hanger at the end forces you to read the next one.

This book is good

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I really loved this, and being my first audio book, I was sceptical. Honestly, I wish I could listen again

This was truly excellent

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Great from beginning to end can’t wait to read the rest of the books! Thrilling, intriguing, exciting

Loved it

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I loved everything about the book the biggest let down was the narration. The narrator is robotic it’s like listening to siri read! The only thing that kept me listening is the story line. I’ll buy the next book cause I don’t think I can manage listening to her voice any longer.

Bad Narration

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I really love the story and think I have found my new favourite book yet the narration isn't that great. It is robotic and sounds a little like Siri. Otherwise the book is great.

Narration is Questionable

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The narrator sounded like Siri. But the actual book is amazing! I really enjoyed the way it was written just not the way it was read.

Fantastic book but narration a bit werid

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The story is brilliant, definitely worth the hype it received, but the narration is awful! Very much like Siri but with a little more emotion. At times it was fine, but so much of it was read in a robotic staccato drone. It was very off putting and stopped me getting carried away in the story.

Brilliant story, awful narration

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The narrator is really bad, almost robot-like. If Siri were to narrate a whole book, this is what it would sound like.

The mystery itself was subpar.

Horrendous narration

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I feel like I'm being a bit generous with giving this book a full 3 stars but it wasn't as bad as some other books I've read in the past slide I'll give it a pass.

I was nervous going into this book. Maureen Johnson wrote one-third of "Let It Snow" and I vowed back then that I would never read another book by her or Lauren Myracle. I liked Maureen's section more but the whole thing about insta-love really put me off.
That being said, I have heard nothing but good things about this series of books so decided that I would give it a shot. Enough years have passed between now and the publication of "Let It Snow" for her writing to improve so I was willing to give the audiobook a shot.

I was pleasantly surprised at first. I related to Stevie and her relationship with her parents. How her interests were seen as abnormal and worrisome, her intelligence discouraged because it would only lead her to trouble and not a boyfriend. How her political views differed greatly from her conservative parents. Her voice was very robotic and she thought of things in ways that made her feel as though she had landed from another planet, but she was interesting.

But of course, Maureen couldn't go 20 minutes without bringing in a needless love interest. I don't like David. I thought he was interesting as a suspect but his and Stevie's romance was pointless and quite frankly not wanted. I didn't go into this story for a contrived Riverdale moment.

The mystery was interesting and really the only reason I'll be continuing with the series. The Ellingham Affair, one of the two central mysteries of the book, is the thing that got me through. I am excited to see what happens next with that because I want to know more about Alice, about who was really behind the kidnapping and what happened to this little girl. The modern-day mystery was good but it didn't hold a candle to the 1930s mystery.

As a final note, I will say I hope the narrator (if it remains to be the same woman) learns how to read better... And I don't mean that in a nasty way. Her voice went very robotic every now and then. It made sense in the past era scenes but for the modern times, it sounded like she was reading off a page rather than telling me the story. I think I'm a little too used to Stephen Fry narrating things because when he tells a story, he makes the world come to life. When this woman read, it felt like she was slugging through for a simple paycheck. She had potential but damn did she not sell this one well.

A Good Attempt

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