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Truly, Devious (Truly Devious, #1)

Maureen Johnson

Start date: October 1, 2020

Finish date: October 31, 2020

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What Members Thought

Jun 17, 2019 Susan rated it it was amazing

I tried to read this book a few years ago and I DNF'd it. I wasn't really in the mood for a mystery at that time and I had checked it out from the library and it was due back. I let it go rather then renew it because I didn't think this was the book for me. Well booktuber and booktuber raved about this book and I saw it at my library one day and knew I had to check it out. I'm so glad I did. I really ended up loving this book. I loved the dual time lines ans learning some of the history from thi I tried to read this book a few years ago and I DNF'd it. I wasn't really in the mood for a mystery at that time and I had checked it out from the library and it was due back. I let it go rather then renew it because I didn't think this was the book for me. Well booktuber and booktuber raved about this book and I saw it at my library one day and knew I had to check it out. I'm so glad I did. I really ended up loving this book. I loved the dual time lines ans learning some of the history from this book. Even if it's fiction the history of Albert Ellingham was really well written.

Albert Ellingham built a school on the side of the mountain in a very remote area in Virginia in 1935-36. It sounds beautiful. It sounds like a school I want to attend actually. If you were underprivileged you were still allowed to attend and Albert would take care of everything. One of his promising students was named Dottie and she was heavily into Sherlock Homes and any mystery she could get her hands on. She found a tunnel under the school and followed it to an observatory that had pillows and chairs and was the perfect place to hide away and read. No one had ever seemed to be in this area so she claimed it as her own. One day she was caught and that would be the last day anyone saw her alive. It also happened to be the day that Iris and Alice Ellingham were ever seen again. The wife and daughter of Albert. There was a huge unsolved mystery surrounding all three people. Two were dead and one is unknown. 80 years later the school is still running and is still a place you got to go even if you couldn't afford it.

Stevie, Hayes, David, Janelle, Nate, Ellie, Pix, and Maris are all part of the Minerva house. Each have their own type of things that is unique to them. Hayes is an actor, Stevie is heavily into mysteries and wants to solve the Ellingham and Dotties mystery. When of them in the group is killed. Is it an accident or do they decide it's a murder.

There is a little romance in this book, a lot of mystery and three different murders 80 years apart. There is a lot of friendship and some enemies. The school is very cool and the back and forth in the different years and what happened in present day and what happened in 1936 is done so great and there is no confusion. I can't wait to pick up the next book in this series. I'm going to go request it right now from the library. I highly recommend this book to anybody who like mystery. ...more

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