Truly Devious, Maureen Johnson (Truly Devious #1)

I’ve been in such a mood for mystery recently and all the recommendations led me to Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson.

Truly Devious, Maureen Johnson (Truly Devious #1)

Themes: Mystery, thriller, contemporary, young adult

Reading Format: Hardback

Pages: 416

3.5 STARS

I picked this book up as a recommendation after finishing A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which I adored. I wanted something exciting and tense to fill the gap this book left. Truly Devious seemed glaringly similar, a schoolgirl is into solving mysteries and she gets swept up into one. But for me, this book didn’t quite hit the right spot.

I found a lot of the characters to be very stereotypical and basically written. They fulfilled the roles you expect from an artsy group of kids at a special school. There was nothing unpredictable about them, which made it a bit one dimensional.  I didn’t know where this plot was going, but I don’t think I was gripped enough to care either.

This is not to say I didn’t enjoy the twists and turns this book took and I would certainly like to visit the school it’s all set in. The map at the front of this book was so interesting and I stared at it a lot. I enjoyed exploring the different areas of the school and seeing how each teacher operated their studies. I would have liked to explore more of this and go into more of the student’s lives as students, it seems we only saw them in their free time which made the story a little more unbelievable.

I read the end of this book much more quickly than the start, the pace increased at the end and it became more exciting. HOWEVER. My main flaw of this book is the ending. I won’t give any spoilers, but we had two cases that needed solving by the end of this book and whilst I knew it was part of a trilogy, I did expect there to be some sort of a conclusion. I can only assume the next book starts off where this one ends because I felt no closure at the end of this book. I wanted something more from this ending, just one conclusion perhaps. I feel unsatisfied reflecting on how this book wound up, but I will keep going with this series!

I’d be interested to know if anyone else shares my thoughts on the ending?