Nine LiarsReview posted August 29, 2024
Katherine Tegen Books, 2022. 11 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written August 3, 2024, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
I'm happy that I'm caught up reading Maureen Johnson's Stevie Bell books. They began with a trilogy, and teenager Stevie Bell looking into a long-ago mystery at Ellingham Academy, the elite private school she was attending in Vermont - with more people turning up dead in the present. After solving that mystery, Stevie has become internet famous as a detective. In The Box in the Woods, she solves another cold case at a camp over the summer - with new deaths, of course, and in this book there's yet another cold case for Stevie to solve.
This time the mystery happened in England in 1995. In the present day, it's November, and Stevie's in school in Vermont, trying to keep a long distance relationship going with David, who is studying in London. Then he pulls strings to get Stevie and their friends a week in London in a custom study abroad program. No surprise that Stevie gets pulled into a cold case - this time it's because of David's English friend's aunt. Also no surprise that not everyone involved in the present day investigation will stay alive.
I enjoyed the way the mystery was presented - with plenty of chapters taking us back to 1995 and the group of nine theater students who'd just graduated from Cambridge having a house party at a manor house - and having a wild time until two were found dead.
I know that Maureen Johnson has spent a lot of time in London, and her writing about the students in London brought me right back to London myself. I like the way she gives intriguing mysteries to these distinctive characters we've come to care about. So while you could read this book on its own - the mystery is self-contained - why would you want to tackle it without enjoying all the history of Stevie and David and their friends?