Review--Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

 

Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.

Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.

The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.

Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.

 

I went into Maureen Johnson's Nine Liars with excitement and mild trepidation due to its sheer size. It's long than the first book, which was the longest book of the series until this one. The mystery itself was good, but unfortunately, the "everyday lifestyles" came into play again and they were very long indeed that it almost overpowered the mystery. It felt like the mystery was almost coming off as a side element...to a mystery book.

Stevie has started her final year at Ellingham Academy. It's her senior year and while her friends are busying themselves with college applications, Stevie isn't sure what she's going to do. Money is still something of an issue, not as much as it was since her mystery solving gig did pay her pretty well, but college is still expensive. Then David has the bright idea that Stevie, Janelle, Vi, and Nate should all come to London for a week in a study abroad program and after 100 pages or so of convincing their school that this is a legit, good idea, they go.

Meanwhile we are once again treated to flashbacks from the past, the mystery that has yet to be solved or landed on Stevie's plate just yet. In it, we see nine friends who just graduated from college and are spending the night at one of their family's manors and playing a game of hide-and-go-seek tag, in the dark, in the rain. Before the night it over, two are murdered and are not discovered until morning in what appears to be an interrupted burglary gone wrong. But is that what really happened?

Again, I must remind you all, I am not a contemporary reader. When there are scenes and scenes and pages and pages of just "normalness" going on in a story, I start to get very bored. Again, this is just a me thing. I came to expect this style from Johnson in the first three books of the series as that was the "Ellingham" case. The case that took three books to resolve. But after reading the fourth book and being highly entertained, I had high hopes that this one would follow in its pattern. Yes, this is a one-and-done mystery. Stevie solves the case and all is well, for the most part. But my goodness, there was just so. Much. Ordinary to sit through before she got to mystery solving. Even when she was trying to work out the case, "ordinary" moments still got in the way and derailed the mystery for awhile.

The actual mystery part of the story was really good though! It was quite the twisted one as it happened almost thirty years ago. No suspects were ever found. It was a cold case for sure. But even despite the intrigue, I still felt like Stevie had very little to go on and was wondering when things would pick up and they do eventually, when a new friend's aunt goes missing. Then things really intensify!

There were still nice Stevie and David moments as well. David has been in London for a few months now, so Stevie was eager to visit him. Time away does make the heart fonder, they say. So Stevie was wanting to spend as much time as possible with him. But then he introduces her to his new friend, Izzy, and that's when things get a bit more complicated for Stevie. David says she's just a friend, and ends up being the friend who needs Stevie's help as he told Izzy all about Stevie's mystery solving and this is how Stevie is introduced to the case that involved Izzy's aunt who was one of the nine friends.

I know Johnson wrote contemporary books awhile ago, and I feel like that shows. These Truly Devious books have a lot of contemporary feels to them and not as much mystery vibes. The mystery is still there, but sometimes I feel like it takes a backseat to the ordinary moments. But as you can see, I still read it. The last book really hooked me into the mystery and I was hoping that this installment would do more of the same, but sadly it kind of fell into the same pattern the first three did. It was still interesting, it just felt like the mystery was a side element again.

Of course since there are currently no other Truly Devious books slated, yet there's still the promise of more, this one ended with a whopper of a cliffhanger for Stevie's personal life. The mystery was resolved in the way that they usually are, but Stevie's personal life was in chaos and it continued right up until the very last page and we were left in dire straits. So now the wait begins...or it began two years ago and I am just that late to the game. I commend those who have been sitting with these last two years. Now I am left wondering what will happen next. Goodreads promises seven books, but when those last two will come about is anyone's guess since Johnson has a new standalone coming out next month.

If you enjoy contemporary reads and like a little mystery then you will positively love this one! If you enjoy mysteries and aren't fond of contemporary reads, well, you might struggle a bit like I did. It really all depends on your enjoyment of contemporary reads. Not being a fan of them, I struggled a bit with this one but I did enjoy the mystery aspects of the story. The pacing bogged me down a bit since it was more fitting to a contemporary story rather than a mystery but it was still a pretty fun read.

Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars