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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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Kate Rudd narrated ‘The Fault in our Stars’ and I loved it! She did an excellent job at conveying tone and character, so my thoughts are that either she was having a bad week when she recorded this, or the director was an idiot. She often stresses words in a very robotic or non-native English way and it’s super jarring, even speeding it up didn’t help. I will be returning the audiobook after writing this.

I often use audiobooks to go along with a physical book, for times that I need my hands or eyes for something else, so I have finished the book and it is great! I can’t wait to get onto the next one, I feel that the characters are likeable and the plot is really fun. I think the characters are lacking a little in description and sometimes I had a hard time imagining what they looked like because I didn’t know their hair colour or even skin colour in some cases. You do find out later, so it’s not the worst thing, just a small criticism. I do recommend the physical copy.

Great book, terrible narration.

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it was so enjoyable. narration was incredible! and the story line even better! The characters where all so enjoyable to learn about. the twists and turns were shocking

loved it!

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What an interesting start to young adult mystery series, that is set in a privately funded school for exceptionally gifted students, on a rather large Vermont property with a twisty past.
We meet the main characters, check out the lesson plans, teachers / instructors, grounds, and histories.
The story line is tight, the plot believable and the smarty pants charmingly inept around the standard intelligent adults.
This book was a lot of fun, watching the realization of characters become, is always interesting in a series.
A great listen and looking forward to starting book two, thank you Maureen Johnson, much appreciated. :-)

Exceptional teens being clever :-)

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The narration sounded robotic about 50% of the time. But the story was engaging.

Robotic

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I wanted to like this book, I know so many people who loved it but the narration is so unusual, so flat and monotonous it out me to sleep almost without fail even though it's a mystery! when even speeding it up failed, I gave up.

The narrator sounds so bored I was too

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