Review of Nine Liars (Truly Devious #5) by Maureen Johnson

The fifth in Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious young adult mystery series showcases Stevie Bell's instincts, doggedness, and ability to uncover the truth, this time in London while she and her friends visit Stevie's long-distance boyfriend David and investigate a decades-old double murder in a group of Cambridge friends.

In the fifth in Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series, skilled amateur high school sleuth Stevie Bell is in denial about her senior-year to-do list. She is overwhelmed about applying to college, and she doesn't have the funds to imagine that next step as a realistic prospect.

When she and her friends get an opportunity to visit their former classmate (and Stevie's long-distance boyfriend) David in London, they cook up detailed research plans and immersion in the history and culture so their headmaster will approve the plan.

But everything is upended when a decades-old mystery of deaths within a tight circle of Cambridge friends in 1995 seems to be the cause of a new friend's aunt's disappearance--and Stevie may be the only one who can find her.

For much of the book, Stevie is in denial about the implications of her senior year and looming future; her friends are planning for college, but Stevie has no funds, no plans, and is paralyzed by the prospect of trying to cobble together options.

Her passion is solving mysteries, and, luckily, she finds a satisfying distraction in the form of the unsolved mystery involving David's new British friend's aunt--one of the friends in the group who had two of their number killed after their graduation decades earlier.

The mystery's resolution isn't too easy, and Stevie leans on procedure, dogged determination, and her intuitive hunches to force a dangerous confrontation and to offer revelations about who is to blame and why.

Stevie relies upon her friends for emotional support and for sleuthing assistance, and I liked the continued focus on the tight, complementary group of friends.

But the novel doesn't wrap up Stevie's situation regarding college plans nor her long-distance relationship with David. A cliffhanger leaves her furious with him, betrayed, and at a loss regarding her future yet again.

More from Maureen Johnson

Maureen Johnson is the author of the six-book Truly Devious young adult mystery series: Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, The Hand on the Wall, The Box in the Woods, this book, and The Velvet Knife.