New York Moments bestselling author Maureen Johnson weaves a sensitive story of murder and mystery in the initial book of the striking brand-new series, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie and E. Lockhart.

Ellingham Academy is a famous personal college in Vermont for the brightest thinkers, inventors, and artists. It had been founded by Albert Ellingham, an early twentieth hundred years tycoon, who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles, twisting pathways, and gardens. “A place,” he stated, “where learning can be a about Truly Devious: A Mystery game.”

Shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only real hint was a mocking riddle list methods of murder, agreed upon 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 season at Ellingham Academy, and she’s an ambitious strategy: She’ll solve this cool case. That’s, she will resolve the case when she gets a hold on her demanding new school life and her housemates: the inventor, the novelist, the acting professional, the artist, and the jokester. But something unusual is going on. Truly Devious makes a surprise return, and death revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Somebody has gotten aside with murder.

The two interwoven mysteries of this first book in the Truly Devious series dovetail brilliantly, and Stevie Bell will continue her relentless search for the murderers in books two and three.

Publishers Regular 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 Open public Library Best of the greatest Books 2018 * Goodreads Choice Honor Nominee for Teen Adult Fiction 2018 * 2018 Nerdy Publication Club Teen Adult Winner * Seventeen Best YA Publication of 2018