Originally published: 22 February 2018

Author: Maureen Johnson

Set in: Vermont

Genre: Young Adult/Crime

Page count: 416

Reading dates: 11-15 February 2018

I was lucky enough to receive this from HarperCollins to review.
Ellingham Academy is a private boarding school in Vermont. Only the brightest and most talented teenagers are admitted where learning is seen to be a game. The school was founded by tycoon Albert Ellingham in 1936, and shortly after the school opened, his wife and daughter were kidnapped. The only clue was a riddle listing all the different ways of murder, signed Truly Devious. The kidnapping became one of the great unsolved cases in American crime history.

Years later, crime obsessed amateur detective Stevie Bell joins the academy as a student and hopes to solve the case.
I love a story set in a boarding school (maybe its an English obsession?) and this one is great! The school environment is interesting and so are the cast of characters, who include a novelist, an artist, and actor and an inventor. There is also a little love interest thrown in for good measure. The story dips in and out of the present day, including the events of 1936, including case notes and interviews from the FBI. This is part of a new trilogy by Maureen Johnson and I look forward to the next part.