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Available
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Publication
Katherine Tegen Books (2022), 464 pages
Description
Mystery. Suspense. Young Adult Fiction. HTML: Stevie Bell solved the case of Truly Devious, and now she's taking her detecting skills abroad when she becomes embroiled in a mystery from 1990s England. Another pulse-pounding and laugh-out-loud stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson. 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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member keeneam
This was another great mystery written by Maureen Johnson and solved by Stevie. Stevie is such a real character with relatable flaws as she navigates her senior year, as well as, being s top crime solver. The mystery was thrilling and had me seconding guessing the perpetrator all the way through. I
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wish her friends had a bigger role, but it made sense for the plot for Stevie to struggle with that divide and growing up. I just hated the cliffhanger ending! Show Less
LibraryThing member jennybeast
Oh so glad that the Truly Devious crew is still having adventures, and this one did not disappoint -- great cold case mystery, more time with these characters that I love so much, more deeply angsty friendship and romance moments. Johnson has a real gift for making the past come alive and the
Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
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personalities matter. I love just getting swept up and trying to follow how Stevie's mind works. Continues to be brilliant, and scary and frustrating and fascinating. Advanced Reader's Copy provided by Edelweiss.
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LibraryThing member kmartin802
This was another excellent mystery starring Stevie Bell and her friends from Ellingham Academy.
It's October of their senior year and her friends are busy planning their college applications. Janelle and Vi want to go to college close to each other but not at the same college. So Janelle has made a
Stevie is at loose ends. She doesn't know what she wants to do for college. She's solved some mysteries and none of the emails about new unsolved crimes are interesting her. And her boyfriend David is studying in England for a semester which means it's harder to communicate with him.
When David calls up and proposes that group come to London because he has a friend with an unsolved mystery, they are all eager to go each for their own reasons. They convince the school leader that this will be a great educational opportunity.
In 1995, a group of newly graduated Cambridge students who have been best friends since freshman year go to spend a final week at one of the group's family home. During a drunken game of hide and seek, two of the nine students are brutally murdered. No murderer has ever been found.
Izzy, David's new friend, wants to get Stevie involved because one of the nine was her aunt who said some questionable things about the murder while under the influence of pain killers after knee surgery. Shortly after Izzy brings her friends to her Aunt Ange's to talk about the crime, Ange disappears.
I loved that way the story wove events from 1995, various police reports, and current day activities together. I especially enjoyed the sections from Stevie's point of view because she is a very interesting character. I liked that her inner uncertainties are so different from her outer competence. I loved the setting which ranged from London's tourist sites to a grand English manor.
It's October of their senior year and her friends are busy planning their college applications. Janelle and Vi want to go to college close to each other but not at the same college. So Janelle has made a
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spreadsheet... Nate is furiously writing every time Stevie sees him which is unusual because he has been avoiding writing since his book was published when he was a young teen.Stevie is at loose ends. She doesn't know what she wants to do for college. She's solved some mysteries and none of the emails about new unsolved crimes are interesting her. And her boyfriend David is studying in England for a semester which means it's harder to communicate with him.
When David calls up and proposes that group come to London because he has a friend with an unsolved mystery, they are all eager to go each for their own reasons. They convince the school leader that this will be a great educational opportunity.
In 1995, a group of newly graduated Cambridge students who have been best friends since freshman year go to spend a final week at one of the group's family home. During a drunken game of hide and seek, two of the nine students are brutally murdered. No murderer has ever been found.
Izzy, David's new friend, wants to get Stevie involved because one of the nine was her aunt who said some questionable things about the murder while under the influence of pain killers after knee surgery. Shortly after Izzy brings her friends to her Aunt Ange's to talk about the crime, Ange disappears.
I loved that way the story wove events from 1995, various police reports, and current day activities together. I especially enjoyed the sections from Stevie's point of view because she is a very interesting character. I liked that her inner uncertainties are so different from her outer competence. I loved the setting which ranged from London's tourist sites to a grand English manor.
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LibraryThing member sennebec
Knowing Stevie is to know frustration and ambivalence. Frustration at her bullheadedness and penchant for rationalization, ambivalence between wanting to dope-slap her, or give her a hug. Teens who have a mental illness or personality issue (for lack of a more accurate term) like her can be
Having said all that, this is a dandy mix of recent and older history, romance, friendship, and good old fashioned sleuthing. You are taken back and forth from the fateful night in 1995 when two of a tightly knit group of college students are murdered during a game of hide and seek during a fierce storm. When Stevie gets a chance to spend a week in England where her boyfriend David, is going to school, she's thrilled, but no sooner does she arrive, than he introduces her to Izzie whose aunt was one of the fateful nine back in 1995. You might as well throw up your hands at that point because there's no force on earth that can get between Stevie and a good murder mystery.
What follows is a mix of creepy, painful moments, a gradual reveal, and more death. What really hit me was the last page of the book. It's like Yogi Berra said. "Deja Vu all over again."
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endearing while simultaneously frustrating as all get out. She's so driven by her inner demons and need to solve mysteries that she can't understand the amount of fallout her bulldozing behavior creates for those around her.Having said all that, this is a dandy mix of recent and older history, romance, friendship, and good old fashioned sleuthing. You are taken back and forth from the fateful night in 1995 when two of a tightly knit group of college students are murdered during a game of hide and seek during a fierce storm. When Stevie gets a chance to spend a week in England where her boyfriend David, is going to school, she's thrilled, but no sooner does she arrive, than he introduces her to Izzie whose aunt was one of the fateful nine back in 1995. You might as well throw up your hands at that point because there's no force on earth that can get between Stevie and a good murder mystery.
What follows is a mix of creepy, painful moments, a gradual reveal, and more death. What really hit me was the last page of the book. It's like Yogi Berra said. "Deja Vu all over again."
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LibraryThing member ShellyPYA
Stevie Bell solved the case of Truly Devious, and now she's taking her detecting skills abroad when she becomes embroiled in a mystery from 1990s England.
LibraryThing member Maydacat
A bit of a departure from the previous books, this one takes place in England. It begins with a story from the past. Nine friends who met at Cambridge University are off for a weekend getaway at the stately mansion owned by the parents of one of the friends. Nine come, but only seven leave alive.
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Flash forward to the present. Stevie and her three friends are off to England for a week of supposedly study, but really, David has asked Stevie to come visit him in England. This mystery of the murdered friends falls in her lap though a friend of David’s and her aunt, one of the nine. And then . . . well, no spoilers here. This novel is more about the nine lying friends, less about the mystery revolving around them, and still less about Stevie and her friends. Readers are left wondering if there will be justice or not. And Stevie, of course, bends the rules to the breaking point to figure what went down so many years ago. The nine aren’t the only liars in this story. Still, Maureen Johnson’s writing is superb and the characters’ drama is intriguing, all of which adds up to an entertaining tale. Show Less
LibraryThing member ftbooklover
Stevie Bell and her friends are off on another adventure, this time on a one week trip to England where Stevie is planning to see David, her long distance boyfriend. When they arrive, David introduces them to Izzy, and she tells them about a mystery surrounding the death of two of her aunt's
Nine Liars is an engaging YA mystery/suspense novel with some romance thrown in. Each book in this series has moved the story of Stevie and her friends along, so that now they are nearing the end of high school and must face changes as they approach college. There is a nice parallel between "The Nine," who were dealing with the same kind of changes as they prepared for graduation from college. At the beginning of the book, every other chapter details events from that fateful weekend in 1995 when two of "The Nine" turn up dead. The alternating chapters are about Stevie and her friends' very atmospheric visit to England. Later chapters include the statements made to police. Overall, Nine Liars is a fun story that keeps the reader guessing right up to the very last sentence.
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friends when they visited an estate not long before their graduation from college. Stevie hoped for an intimate reunion with David, but most of their time is spent on obligations for school and chasing down clues in Izzy's mystery. When Izzy's aunt goes missing, Stevie and her friends must amp up their search for answers, leaving Stevie wondering if she is going to have time to solve the mystery or find any private moments with David.Nine Liars is an engaging YA mystery/suspense novel with some romance thrown in. Each book in this series has moved the story of Stevie and her friends along, so that now they are nearing the end of high school and must face changes as they approach college. There is a nice parallel between "The Nine," who were dealing with the same kind of changes as they prepared for graduation from college. At the beginning of the book, every other chapter details events from that fateful weekend in 1995 when two of "The Nine" turn up dead. The alternating chapters are about Stevie and her friends' very atmospheric visit to England. Later chapters include the statements made to police. Overall, Nine Liars is a fun story that keeps the reader guessing right up to the very last sentence.
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LibraryThing member sleahey
In the not so distant past of 1995, a group of nine close friends celebrated their pending university graduation by spending a weekend at a large country estate. Two of the nine were murdered. Fast forward to the present and Stevie Bell, who has been the murder-solving heroine of the Truly Devious
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mystery series set at a Vermont boarding school. When Stevie receives an invitation from her boyfriend David to come to London to solve a past murder there, she finagles a study week abroad with her three closest friends. With alternating chapters describing the two sets of friendships and their reaction to the 1995 murder, the pace picks up as the week abroad winds down. While there is some satisfactory resolution, the twist at the very end is a clear opening to the next in the series. Show Less
LibraryThing member jmchshannon
Usually, Maureen Johnson knocks every one of her stories out of the park. Unfortunately, with Nine Liars, it is less a home run and more an infield blooper. My daughter and I discussed how disappointed we both felt upon finishing a mediocre mystery with teen angst.
The major problem my daughter and
As for the mystery behind Nine Liars, even that was okay. It wasn’t necessarily clever. If it weren’t for all of her time and attention spent on David, the story’s resolution would be speedy. Stevie and her friends are in danger at no point in time. The lack of any suspense makes the whole thing a lackluster experience.
The one thing I enjoyed while reading Nine Liars was Ms. Johnson’s descriptions of London and the sites Stevie and her friends visit. Now, my daughter thought they were boring. I appreciated them because they were all areas Jim and I saw during our trip to London this fall. It was fun to finally read a novel set in London and know exactly what the author is talking about based on firsthand experience.
I may be unfairly harsh on Nine Liars because I have such high expectations for any of Maureen Johnson’s novels. Most of her stories are clever, quirky, and suspenseful, with a dry wit that I adore. I didn’t find any of that in Nine Liars, hence my disappointment. But it’s not just my disappointment here. My daughter feels the same way and is more of Ms. Johnson’s target audience than I am.
The major problem my daughter and
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I had with Nine Liars is the endless teen drama between Stevie and David, the neverending will-they-or-won’t-they tension that makes up most of the novel. The murder mystery is merely background noise to Stevie’s anxiety over her relationship with David. Something is wrong when an eighteen-year-old girl in her long-distance relationship finds Stevie’s and David’s excruciating and unnecessary.As for the mystery behind Nine Liars, even that was okay. It wasn’t necessarily clever. If it weren’t for all of her time and attention spent on David, the story’s resolution would be speedy. Stevie and her friends are in danger at no point in time. The lack of any suspense makes the whole thing a lackluster experience.
The one thing I enjoyed while reading Nine Liars was Ms. Johnson’s descriptions of London and the sites Stevie and her friends visit. Now, my daughter thought they were boring. I appreciated them because they were all areas Jim and I saw during our trip to London this fall. It was fun to finally read a novel set in London and know exactly what the author is talking about based on firsthand experience.
I may be unfairly harsh on Nine Liars because I have such high expectations for any of Maureen Johnson’s novels. Most of her stories are clever, quirky, and suspenseful, with a dry wit that I adore. I didn’t find any of that in Nine Liars, hence my disappointment. But it’s not just my disappointment here. My daughter feels the same way and is more of Ms. Johnson’s target audience than I am.
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LibraryThing member terran
I enjoyed this 5th entry in the series, but not quite as much. Stevie and her friends are in their final year at Ellingham Academy and there is a lot of angst about college plans and such. They concoct a plan to spend a week in England where Stevie's boyfriend, David, is studying, and end up
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solving a cold case murder mystery from the 1990s. The sleuthing part was fun and detailed. Show Less
Awards
Original language
English
Original publication date
2022-12-27
Physical description
464 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
0063032651 / 9780063032651