Wednesday, the 28th of October, and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, where/when you got it and such. If you participate, link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!
Today my pick is a more recent acquisition (in fact among the latest additions to my shelves), and a book I’m very much looking forward to reading because it happens to be the final book in a mystery series. Truly Devious is a mystery series that follows a dual time line; in the present, we have a young girl Stevie Bell who has secured admission in an unusual school Ellingham Academy where gifted students are allowed to pursue curricula that suit their specific interests and gifts. Stevie’s interest–true crime! And the case she is specifically interested in solving has to do with the school itself. Eighty years ago, just after the school’s founding by tycoon Albert Ellingham, his wife and daughter are kidnapped, and while his wife’s body is recovered, his daughter was never found. The perpetrator identified at the time was unconvincing and Stevie wants to get to the bottom of the case. But then deaths begin to take place in the present as well. In the second book, The Vanishing Stair more developments take place, further deaths, and there are quite a few interesting revelations (my reviews of these are here and here).
This is the third part of the series where Stevie must put together all she has found so far and resolve both the events of the present and past, for though she thinks she has solved what happened all those years ago, has she really? In the present, three people are now dead and there is also someone missing. To add to everything, there is a massive storm heading towards Vermont where Ellingham is located!
I started this series knowing that the mystery/mysteries weren’t going to be solved in one book but over three so the fact that only a few revelations were made, or that there were cliffhangers didn’t bother me too much. But the gap between reading book one and two (eight months as I mentioned in my review) meant that some of the details had disappeared from my mind and it was a while before I got back into the book fully. The case is the same for this one since I read Book 2 in January, and it is again about 8 months. But I’m still excited to see how these mysteries are resolved and all the twists and turns that are to come. I also just found that the series is continuing with another book, and (luckily/thankfully) a new mystery for Stevie to solve now that she’s done with these.
Have you read this series or any of the books? How did you like it/them? What other young adult mysteries have you read that you liked? Any that you’d recommend? Looking forward to your thoughts and recommendations!
Info and cover image from Goodreads as always (here)
Find Lisa’s pick this week, a collection of writings by author John Scalzi here
Literary Potpourri 
The series does sound interesting! I remember seeing the cover for Truly Devious when it came out, but didn’t know anything about the plot. I may need to check it out!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good you didn’t; I felt I shouldn’t have hurried either since all the books weren’t out then, I think it’ll be more enjoyable to read these now when you won’t HAVE to wait for the next one.
LikeLiked by 1 person