I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson Series: Truly Devious #5
Published by Katherine Tegen Books on 12/27/22
Genres: Contemporary, Mystery & Detective, Thrillers, Young Adult
Pages: 457
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.
Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.
The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.
Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.
Short and Sweet Review
It’s senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie and its not going well, she needs to start thinking about colleges but she’d rather not. So when her boyfriend in David who is currently in London invites Stevie and her friends to London it’s a welcome distraction. In London David introduces Stevie to Izzy who just happens to mention a double murder from 1995 that was never solved and involves her aunt and her remaining six friends.
In 1995 a group of nine friends decided to play hide and go seek late at night and sometime in the morning it was discovered that two of them were murdered with an ax, also this group of friends have been hiding the truth about what actually happened that night.
When Stevie hears about this the wheels start turning and when she meets Angela, Izzy’s aunt, Stevie starts to wonder what really happened that night, but the thing is Stevie is supposed to be in London for a cultural immersion and learning things that she’ll eventually have to report back to Dr. Quinn who is keeping close tabs on the group. The rest of the group, especially Janelle is trying to stick to the schedule, but when Angela goes missing Stevie feels compelled to solve this case.
This was actually a pretty interesting case, a game of hide and seek a group of friends, an axe murderer, and now a missing woman. I will say the book started off slow but once the case was told to Stevie things start to pick up. This one was a little more complicated because Stevie had to make sure Dr. Quinn didn’t know what she was up to and Stevie kind of felt constricted by her friends because she didn’t want them to get in trouble because she felt the need to stray from their original plans. I will say Stevie made some bad decisions when it came to her friends, on one hand I understand why she did what she did, but on the other she really ended up hurting her friends. Also there was a bigger focus on Stevie and her relationship with David and all I’ll say is I still don’t understand why she likes him and everything I’ve said about him in my other reviews for the previous books in the series just made me see that I was right about him all along. Anyway Stevie is still determined to solve mysteries and catch culprits and we see in this book how much it may lead to her detriment. The ending was okay I was expecting some arrests, a few cop cars, and satisfaction. The book left off on a cliffhanger and I really want to know what Stevie’s next moves are because things seem pretty crappy for her at the moment.
The Truly Devious series is perfect for anyone who likes mysteries and Nine Liars is as compelling as the previous four books in the series. Join Stevie as she solves another mystery and also puts her heart on the line.
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