Nine Liars (Truly Devious)

I will begin with a confession: I don't really like murder mystery novels. What I mean by that is, I don't like them more than any other type of novel. When I read a mystery, I read it as I would any other novel -- that is, as a story, with characters and a plot. The mystery is only interesting to me as the plot of this particular novel. I don't care if the author follows the strangely arbitrary rules that mysteries are supposed to adhere to. (Some of them, indeed, I find tiresome, such as the scene in the end where the sleuth gathers all the possible suspects in a room together and reveals all. I will never forgive Agatha Christie for inflicting that monstrosity on us.) The mystery to me is no more than a plot. I want it to be a good plot -- I don't really care if it's a good mystery, in the way that mystery fanatics judge such things.I do, however, like certain mystery novels. That includes Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series. I can say what I like about Truly Devious in one word: Stevie. Stevie (that would be Stephanie Bell) is the heroine at the center of Truly Devious. She's the daughter of ordinary conservative American parents who just want their daughter to be a Nice Girl, hook up with a Nice Guy, and eventually have a Nice Family. Stevie has less than zero interest in being a Nice Girl. She is not interested in her body, or in clothes. Here is how she describes her wardrobe:"She was the kind of person who had both kinds of shirts: the T-shirts with writing on them and those without. There were the jeans she liked, the ones that fit okay, and the ones that fit badly but she’d bought them and was therefore stuck with them for the rest of her life, or whatever it was that happened to jeans. She’d brought the one dress she owned, which was black and still had the tags on it."But don't get the idea that Stevie cares about nothing. Poet Robert Bly is reported to have said"It is surely a great calamity for a human being to have no obsessions."(By the way, if someone could identify the source of that quote for me, I would be grateful.)This is not a calamity that afflicts Stevie. Stevie is obsessed with murder. More specifically, she is obsessed with unsolved murders from the past. In the first four books of Truly Devious she solved several murders, including two mysteries that had remained unsolved for decades, and she is now moderately famous among those who care about such things.As Nine Liars opens Stevie is beginning her senior year at Ellingham Academy, and she is bored."All she needed, really, was a little murder. Not a big one. A little something to take the edge off... There were so many murders out there. Surely, she could have one."Her friends Nate, Janelle, and Vi are with her at Minerva House. Stevie's unreliable boyfriend David is in England, studying at Cambridge for a semester. David invites Stevie and her friends for a two-week work-study visit in London. They arrive, and Stevie gets her wish. David's friend Izzy tell Stevie's gang of an old murder that happened to friends of her aunt, at a country house owned by one of said friends.Johnson explains Nine Liars as follows."I did it. I finally wrote an English country house mystery. This has been a goal of my life. Little Maureen spent many afternoons with her head in a mystery, dreaming of finding the body in the library. I was bad at kickball, but I was good at finding the murderer."And it's good. Stevie is as lovable as ever. Nate, Janelle, and Vi remain the faithful friends, and David the somewhat skeazy boyfriend. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’ve got a lot to say about this book. First, it was way better than The Box in the Woods, in my opinion. I will have to get into spoilers for Nine Liars because I can’t help myself, but first I’ll talk about all the good things without spoiling the book.So, the writing, as always, is superb. The mystery was woven together so well that I’m pretty sure Maureen Johnson was born to write about murders. The only real problem I had with it was it was such a slow start. I didn’t feel super invested in the mystery until more than halfway through the book. Once I got invested, though, I was hooked until the end. I also didn’t guess who the murderer was, which was pretty nice.Obviously we’re back with the same fun characters as before. I love David but I especially love all things Stevie. Yes, sometimes she’s toxic and makes monumentally bad decisions, but she is unapologetically herself and is a BADASS. I love her for it.Like I said earlier, my only huge qualm with this novel is how slow the mystery started and was paced. Everything interesting happened in the last part of the book.Overall, this book was the perfect cozy mystery for Christmas break and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Even though it took me a little longer to get through this than I’d hoped (anyone else still wrapped up in Christmas get-togethers??), it was still a really great read and won’t disappoint those who loved Truly Devious and the rest of the series.Favorite quote: “I’ve got a murder mansion, a house full of suspects, a pile of evidence, and nothing.”

I'm reading this series entirely out of order. But that's fine.So I really enjoyed how the fabula and syuzhet were done and also how we got the different perspectives of the same events. This book reminded me a little of Knives Out in that regard, though not the same kind of funny. There were some very funny moments. Don't get me wrong. But it didn't have quite the same level.Anyway, this book was a little bit heartbreaking. Not intensely heartbreaking. But enough that I've got a bit of an ache in my chest. The Murder She Wrote ache. Where the killer made a poor decision, or a series of them.But it was a very good book. Well-written for the mystery. The foreshadowing was subtle enough that I caught a bit of it but it didn't trigger "Well, obviously." Hindsight, it's obvious, which is the hallmark of a good twist. The character relationships felt real and were engaging. And I feel for Stevie and her little pack. They're great.I'm not in love with this book. But I enjoyed this enough to go back and start at the first book.And also after this because that ending. Oof.

My teen is giving this one 3.5 stars. They said they liked it, but it was more romance heavy than mystery heavy. The opposite was true in the other books. They also said they wished the end was slightly different. But overall, it was a good book.

Thank you NetGalley and Katherine Tegen Books for this eARC, these opinions are my own. I love Stevie and the mysteries she solves! Nine Liars is my favorite one so far! Stevie is missing David while he’s in London. David convinces her to do a study abroad with their friends. While in London David’s friend asks for Stevie’s help. Her aunt was involved in a cold case, 9 friends go to the countryside only some of them survive. Is this a classic case of burglary or do the nine know more then they have said? I enjoyed Stevie getting to see another place, the references to London and England were fun! There were twists and turns, plenty of intrigue, and this mystery was deeply personal! I of course loved Nate, Vi, Janelle, and David as always! I also enjoyed the nines backstory they were all very interesting characters! Izzy was also a really fun addition to the group! And the ending left me heartbroken! There has to be a sixth book! An enjoyable mystery that I couldn’t put down! Highly recommend if you like mysteries, especially if you have enjoyed Stevie’s journeys from the beginning! Can’t wait to read it again!

Can't wait to read

It was good. I read the book in a day or two, so obviously I enjoyed it. Was a bit bored at times with the present-day stuff, and way more interested in the flashback chapters; wish there'd been more of those. I also guessed the perpetrator quite early on, and no, I usually don't, at least as quickly. The ending was a bit disappointing, it just fell flat somehow. So it was a quick enjoyable book, but I was especting more

The book was given to my granddaughter and she was overjoyed