El caso Vermont

Calling all people who have been looking for a cool, modern mystery set in a Hogwarts-esque castle! This book is for you!

(and check out this review on my blog!)


SYNOPSIS:
Truly Devious has not one, but two mysteries in its plot (yay, more mystery!). The first one begins in 1939, when Ellingham Academy's owner receives a mysterious letter from someone called Truly Devious, and time reveals that his wife and daughter have been taken hostage. Nearly a century later, though the mysterious Ellingham case has yet to be solved, new-student Stevie Bell believes she can solve it before the end of the school year. 

Stevie is obsessed with true crime, and knows everything there is to know about the Ellingham case. She meets new people and makes new friends at Ellingham Academy, and begins to think the school year will go as planned. But soon, things get stolen, classmates go missing, and Stevie suddenly finds herself much deeper into the bad side of Ellingham Academy than she expected.

So how was it? 
Somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars. 

At first, it took me a while to get used to the plot and its characters, but once I reached about a few chapters in, I was enjoying myself. When a book is comprised of chapters from the past and present, usually I lose interest, but that tactic really worked for the author!

One of my favorite things about Truly Devious was how the author presented the “clues” throughout the book. I'm not really sure if that makes sense, but I liked the pacing! Especially as someone who typically doesn't read mystery books, Truly Devious was a nice blend of compelling clues and simple solutions (meaning that the “mystery” was easy enough for me to understand, but hard enough for me to not see it coming.)

Something else I liked / didn't like:
One of the few things that I disliked was the fact that when one part (I won't say which) of the mystery's solution was resolved, I was like, “But didn't we already establish that?” This element of the plot, I believe, was so obvious from the beginning that when the main characters revealed it, I was a bit confused. (However, since this particular element was not the solution to the mystery, I was okay!)

WHY YOU SHOULD PICK UP THIS BOOK:
- Some interesting characters!
- One mystery is solved at the end of this book, but you'll still have a bunch of questions (which bleed over into the next parts of the series), so you'll be wanting more!
- There are 2 more books coming up!
- Suspense! 
- Mystery!
- A bit of teen romance here and there!
- Who doesn't want to go to the middle of nowhere to solve crimes?