Truly Devious Trilogy by Maureen Johnson (2018-2020)

Look! A riddle! Time for fun!
Should we use a rope or gun?
Knives are sharp and gleam so pretty.
Poison’s slow, which is a pity.
Fire is festive, drowning’s slow.
Hanging’s a ropy way to go.
A broken head, a nasty fall,
a car colliding with a wall.
Bombs make a very jolly noise –
such ways to punish naughty boys!
What shall we use? We can’t decide.
Just like you cannot run or hide.
Ha ha.
Truly, Devious.

The Truly Devious trilogy — Truly Devious, The Disappearing Stair, and The Hand on the Wall — is a mystery set in the 1930s and in present-day Vermont. In the 1930s, Albert Ellingham founded Ellingham Academy, an elite school for high school students. Ellingham loved riddles (and penning them) and his academy was to be a place to help the brightest minds flourish, full of puzzles, gardens and secret passageways. But soon after its founding (while parts of the school were still under construction), the Academy became famous for another reason: in 1936, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. While Ellingham cooperated and paid the ransom, his wife, Iris, and daughter, Alice, were not returned. Iris’s body washed up on shore a few days after the kidnapping, and a known anarchist was convicted of the kidnapping, but his daughter was never found. For the rest of his life, Ellingham believed that Alice would come home and the Academy will be hers when she returns.

Throughout the three books, the mystery of the kidnapping unfurls, slyly dropping clues. There’s plenty of red herrings and misdirects. It’s very cleverly done and fans of mysteries will enjoy the story, partly because it’s original, and partly because of the characters we’re introduced to. Because this isn’t just the mystery of a kidnapping in 1936. It’s also a mystery in the present-day. (We continually jump back and forth in time, which could be tedious but really works well in keeping your interest and coming back after books 1 & 2 end on cliffhangers.) Stevie Bell is a real-crime enthusiast who arrives at Ellington Academy determined to solve the crime of the last century (It’s not a secret why she’s there; she was admitted to the Academy based on her admissions essay focusing on the mystery and her desire to find the truth). Stevie isn’t just your garden-variety Ellington buff; she’s read everything under the sun (and I mean *everything*) that’s related to the case. As Stevie pursues the cold case, other mysterious things happen (including death under strange circumstances), so it’s not just figuring out the past, it’s figuring out the strange things happening in the present.

We mainly get to know the students assigned to Stevie’s residence, Minerva House. It’s obvious from the beginning that Stevie and the other students are both highly-intelligent and not quite normal. Nate is already a best-selling author and part of his studies at Ellingham are to write his next book. Janelle is a brilliant engineer preparing a Rube Goldberg-type machine for a prestigious international competition. Ellie (Element) is an artist who spent the last summer creating/selling her art in Paris. (Nate and I agree that Ellie tries a bit to hard to be seen as a genius.) David is focused on computer programming and is intentionally obtuse. And then there’s Hayes, a YouTube star who went viral for his drama, The End of It All. (Think The Blair Witch Project but trapped in a house during the zombie apocalypse.)

This isn’t just a story about solving a mystery. It’s a story about perennial outsiders who find a home/family. It’s also a story about people who are different finding a place where they belong. Best of all, it’s a story with someone on the spectrum as its protagonist. (It’s never said that Stevie’s on the spectrum, but her discomfort with people and their expressions, her dogged way of looking at things and the way her brain processes lead me to suspect that Stevie’s not just a genius, but she’s a genius with Asperger’s.) One of the things that I love about the series is how Stevie, while different, is never treated like someone missing anything.

In fact, the only people who can’t seem to accept Stevie are her parents. (Think of the stereotypical conservative news enthusiast who works for a politician who stands for American/family values and against wokeness, protecting the environment and anything else those liberals are trying to destroy America with. They’re not conservative fanatics, just good-hearted people who want to keep things the same because it works for them.) Stevie’s parents are malicious or cruel or neglectful. They just don’t understand their daughter and why normal things don’t make her happy.

The story piques your interest from the outset — with the murder of one of the pupils who was unfortunate enough to stumble across the kidnapper right before the kidnapping — but it’s not a high-octane thriller. In fact, it took me a bit to really get into the story to the point where I had to know what happened and how things were going to end. This is a story that slowly builds as it progresses. But, as I’ve sat with the finished story, I’ve only grown in my appreciation for the story (and now I can’t wait for the next installment to come out!) The first book was a 3.5-star read for me. But by the time I finished The Hand on the Wall, the series became a 4.5-star read.

I definitely recommend if you like Agatha Christie-type mysteries, well-developed and quirky characters and snark. (I especially love Nate, with all his put-upon grumbling.) Even characters I initially thought were obnoxious have won a place in my heart. (Except for Hayes. He never won me over.) I agree with someone who said that you’ll want to make sure that you borrow all 3 books if you’re getting them from the library, because those cliffhangers!

Series rating: 4.5/5 stars