Truly Devious (Truly Devious #1)

(Hogwarts - Magic) + Sherlock Holmes = "Truly Devious"

And boy oh boy, is it truly devious. I mean, like... Okay, read the summary/blurb first:

["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."]

It took me about a week to get through the first book (oh yeah, did I mention that this book is the first in a trilogy?), but I was too stuck in my head over other things.

But the setting of Hogwarts (or my very own, deeply beloved college campus) but in the mountains of Vermont is magical all own its own. But then you add in an obsession of True Crime and Sherlock Holmes and the centuries oldest and most curious unsolved kidnapping/murder??? It all adds up to something that is hard to put down. 

Especially how brilliant Maureen Johnson is at adding a great plot twist right at the end of the novel, compelling you to just start the second one right away??? Yeah, go read this!!

Trigger Warnings: murder, kidnapping, smoking, drinking, psychological torture, mysterious accidents disguised as murders

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