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In the first two installments in Maureen Johnson’s Truly Devious series, a gifted teenager set out to solve the crime of the century—only to have one mystery after another piled on top. And in the third and final installment, The Hand on the Wall, she’s solved the case—but she doesn’t know whom to trust with the answers.
The story catches up with teen sleuth Stevie Bell after the death of her advisor—the third mysterious death since Stevie arrived at Ellingham Academy. Though all of the deaths could have been accidents, Stevie suspects that they’re somehow connected to the school’s decades-old unsolved mystery—the one that Stevie came to the school to solve. As a blizzard approaches, yet another accident causes the administrators to shut down the school and send the students home—but Stevie and her friends decide to go into hiding on the mountain to solve the mysteries that have been haunting the academy.
Convinced that she knows what happened to the wife and child of the school’s wealthy founder, Albert Ellingham, Stevie still has a few remaining pieces to put together. And with a storm making its way toward the mountain, there’s a chance that Stevie and her friends could find themselves snowed in with a murderer, which adds even more claustrophobic tension to an already taut and suspenseful series.
Meanwhile, as the story skips back and forth from the present day to the days (and years) surrounding the original Ellingham mystery, the details become clearer. Stevie and her friends literally tear the school apart to find the clues that lead them to the answers. Unfortunately, though, not all of the results are entirely satisfying. Throughout the series, there have been a number of stories at play: the story of two unsolved murders and the disappearance of Alice Ellingham, the story of two troublemaking students from the 1930s, the continuing stories of danger and death at present-day Ellingham Academy, and some additional mystery surrounding a shady politician with ties to both Stevie and one of her classmates. This final book in the trilogy adds even more twists and storylines to further complicate the mystery, only to reveal that many of the mysterious subplots had little or no bearing on the story.
In the end, it all seems strangely simple, and it’s hard to believe that the case would have gone unsolved for decades. After following this thrilling series for three tense installments, readers may feel somewhat disappointed when the case is finally closed.
Of course, if you’ve been following the Truly Devious mysteries, you won’t want to miss the final book in the trilogy. But, unfortunately, it isn’t as clever and as gripping as the beginning of the series.
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