Truly Devious

Stevie Bell is a true-crime obsessive who has just won a place at Ellingham Academy, a private school in Vermont for gifted thinkers, inventors and artists. The school was built in the early twentieth century by the tycoon Albert Ellingham, who filled its grounds with riddles, winding paths and gardens because he believed learning should feel like play.

The school's history carries a dark stain. Not long after it opened, Ellingham's wife and daughter were kidnapped, and the only solid lead was a taunting riddle that listed ways to kill, signed "Truly, Devious." The crime was never solved and became one of the most notorious cold cases in American history.

Stevie arrives with a bold goal: to crack that case herself. First she has to find her footing in a demanding new school and get to know the classmates she shares a house with, among them an inventor, a novelist, an actor, an artist and a prankster. Then something goes wrong. The old signature resurfaces, a new death shakes the campus, and it becomes clear that someone has once again gotten away with murder.

Maureen Johnson alternates between the decades-old kidnapping and the present-day killing, and the two threads are designed to meet. This is the first novel in the Truly Devious series, and Stevie's pursuit of the culprits continues in the next two books. It suits readers who enjoy classic puzzle mysteries in the vein of Agatha Christie, set in a boarding school with plenty of secrets.