Confessions of a Bookaholic: Truly Devious

Stevie Bell isn't your average teenager. For one thing, she's a lot smarter than your run-of-the-mill high school student. For another, she's into true-crime to an extent that her parents find extremely worrisome. Stevie doesn't want to commit crimes, though; more than anything, she wants to solve them. A serious study in the methods of classic detectives like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, Stevie dreams of using her vast stores of knowledge to unravel mysteries for a living. During her research, one mystery in particular becomes her focus: the Truly Devious case.

Albert Ellingham was a fabulously wealthy industrialist in the early 1900s, but he was most well-known for the school he established for exceptionally bright students in a remote area of Vermont. Believing learning should be treated like a game and accessible to all regardless of their class, Ellingham built a sprawling campus and handpicked students from around the country to attend for free and develop their skills at their own pace. No expense was spared and only the best were brought in to attend to the young minds. The heart of the campus was the mansion where Ellingham lived with his wife and young daughter, throwing lavish parties for the uppermost sect of society... until the letter came. In 1936, Ellingham received a sinister letter signed only "Truly, Devious". Although no stranger to threats due to his line of work, this one, written like a murderous nursery rhyme, was creepier than most. Days later, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. In spite of his desperate attempts to get them back, his wife's body washed up on shore weeks later and his daughter was never found, dead or alive. Decades later, the mystery has never been solved.

Stevie has read every article, interview, and book on the Truly Devious case and knows she could crack it if given the opportunity. So when Ellingham Academy, still in operation, starts accepting applications for the next school year, Stevie decides to apply on the off-chance that she'll be granted such an opportunity. Much to her surprise, her application is accepted. Soon, she's on her way to woody Vermont, home of the wayward moose and one of the most famous cold cases of the century. Stevie is flooded with excitement when she arrives at the school and grounds she's studied for years. Although unsure what to expect, she finds that her housemates are mostly amiable, some enough to be counted as friends. Specialties in the house vary from YouTube star to engineering whiz and, for the first time, Stevie starts to feel like she's finally found a place where she can belong. The curriculum even sets her up to use the Truly Devious case as a project, with the warning that she not allow the victims to be dehumanized in the quest for answers. As the year progresses, Stevie teams up with some of her classmates to cover different aspects of their projects together with the Truly Devious case as the guide. But the closer they get to the heart of the mystery, the more it becomes apparent that the case isn't as cold as everyone thought. Strange occurrences, a suspicious accident, and a letter written in the style of the original Truly Devious note all convince Stevie that someone wants to make sure the case stays buried, and they'll do anything to keep it from coming to light.

Full disclosure, this is not a "read at a leisurely pace" book. This is a "cram every possible second reading until it's over" type of book. I have read 52 books so far this year and this is definitely one of my favorites. It's got unsolved mysteries mixed with ongoing ones! It's got an old school with secret passages! It's got highly sarcastic main characters and eccentric quadrillionaires! I ask of you, what more could you possibly want from a YA novel? If YA lit isn't usually your cup of tea, I'd encourage you to give this one a go. Yes, it has characters in a younger age group and yes, it does have some of your typical high school drama, but the plot is intriguing and, truthfully, better written than some of the "adult" books I've read this year. It skips between the present day and the events of the Truly Devious case, but smoothly enough that you don't get whiplash from the constant back and forth. Also I know we're not supposed to judge books by their covers and all that jazz, but wow I love the covers in this series.

If I have one complaint (and really I wouldn't even use that strong of a word for it), it's where the book ends. This is the first book in a trilogy so I can understand having to cut it off somewhere, but the point at which the book ended felt a little off to me. To be fair, I haven't started the second one yet so maybe it makes total sense with where that picks up, but I definitely did think it was sort of abrupt with everything that was still going on. Actually, I have one other sort-of-but-not-actually complaint. Stevie *h a t e s* her parents' employer, some local politician dude, and often takes it out on her parents, who *l o v e* said local politician dude. I get where she's coming from, but also... people gotta eat, man. Maybe they only started working for the guy because they were desperate for a job and then they drank the proverbial Kool-aid after the fact, but I do think there's a line between disagreement and disrespect and Stevie joyously cavorts down this very thin line more than once.

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