Nine Liars Review (Truly Devious, #5)

Hello, all!

I've been such a fan of the Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson since it came out, so I'm loving the fact that she just keeps churning out more with the latest installment being Nine Liars.

Pub Date: 12-27-22
YA - Mystery

Everyone has their senior year at Ellingham Academy all figured out except for Stevie Bell. Her friends are filling out college applications, and her boyfriend, David, is studying abroad in London. Without a case to solve, Stevie has found herself adrift and listless. So when David invites her and her friends to London, Stevie jumps at the opportunity. There she meets David's new friend Izzy, who enlists Stevie's help in solving a 1995 double-murder cold case that her aunt was involved. 

Back in 1995, Izzy's aunt was part of a group at Cambridge University dubbed "The Nine." The group did everything together: lived, worked, dated, fought, and made up. One night, they decide to go up to the manor house of one of the members, where they proceeded to get drunk and play a game of hide-and-seek. By morning, two of the members were found murdered in the woodshed by an axe. The case was assumed to be a botched burglary, but one of the remaining seven saw something unexplainable, and Stevie is determined to find out what.

As I mentioned, I love this series. They're fun, twisty mysteries that, while predictable, always keep me entertained. This latest installment was no exception. I loved being back in Stevie's mindset as she tried to puzzle out clues and fit everything together. Admittedly, as the series goes on, you have to suspend your disbelief a bit because there's no way a high schooler keeps solving these decades-long cold cases, but it's whatever. It wasn't my favorite mystery of the bunch, but I did like how it all wrapped up in the end. I couldn't figure out the murderer, so watching Stevie piece it together was satisfying. However, the end of the book had me rolling my eyes and not looking forward to whatever drama will unfold in the next book. 

Rating: 3/5