Updated review now that Harper Collins Union has received a contract.

I love these mysteries, I love Stevie and her friends, I love the writing. This particular mystery was nicely layered and kept me guessing and interested. I love when Stevie does her thing, figuring everything out and laying it out for the reader. Very ready for the next book in the series!

I despise David. I have nothing more to say about him and wish he would go away.

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children's Books for the eRC in exchange for an honest review.

A fun addition to the series! The setting was particularly delightful, and it was interesting to see Stevie and her friends in another new context.

Such an enjoyable addition to Stevie’s story! These books are always a good time to read and the mystery is as unpredictable as ever. Johnson’s writing is easy to follow, the characters she writes interesting as ever. I didn’t know that there would be more books after the last one but I am always happy to read more of Stevie’s mystery adventures.

This book was INCREDIBLY average, hence the 3-star rating. Granted... I didn't love any of the previous books either, but I feel compelled to finish since I've made it this far.

1) Stevie is incredibly annoying about David. I still don't understand how he has lasted this long. Not once in the past 5 books has there been a reason for me to like David. It's not that he does anything bad, it's just that he's just some guy. I would understand if he was the end all, be all of teenage boys but... he's the bare minimum.
2) I did enjoy the backstory of The Nine when we were first getting to know them, but the actual reason for the deaths of Rosie and Noel was so dumb and it made no sense to me how it wasn't discovered earlier. They died in the 90s; crime technology was good enough to have discovered the killer.
3) The Nine in present day were god awful and I wished all of them had been the killer just because I didn't care for any of them and wanted them all in jail.
4) Nate and Janelle need to drop Stevie as a friend tbh (although I do think she treats Nate far better than she treats Janelle, so I'd understand if he and Stevie were platonic soulmates).

Overall... I will continue the series since I'm this far in, but it's not worth your time to start it if you haven't (though if you haven't... why are you reading this review for the fifth book in the series? Get outta here!).

I absolutely loved the first 4 books in this mystery series, but not this one. Yes, all the main characters are there, but this one is just different. There is a lot of talk about sex. Stevie seems more fixated on the idea of having sex with her boyfriend than in solving the cold case. There is more drama and less mystery in this one. It does end in a way that calls for a follow-up book, I just hope there is not as much relationship drama in the next one.

The mystery is 5 stars. The teen angst romance thing is 2 stars. The whole stupid part of her not doing anything for her future, lying to friends, and the ending things she does? Negative stars!

The fifth case of Stevie Bell finds her on the other side of the Pond. With her friends in tow and thinking towards their futures, Stevie finds herself investigating an old double murder (she is not supposed to be investigating even a single murder, but what else is new?). A friend of her boyfriend points her to a former nine-person acting troupe; “former” as they’ve all moved on and because two are dead. Yet, one of these Nine believes one of her old friends is the killer. With her wits alone, Stevie must find who and why, all battling her anxieties of her future.
It’s a great read, for the mystery alone. It’s even better now that we know Stevie and her company. We see her take bigger risks; not the action movie ones, but the ones that matter and show how she is growing up.

🔎 A R C • R E V I E W 🔍
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Title: Nine Liars
Author: Maureen Johnson
Rating: 4/5 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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I bought the Truly Devious series back in 2021 and I flew through the first three and then was super excited for Box In the Woods - and enjoyed it, so when I saw that there was now a 5th installment, I was super excited.
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I really enjoy the camaraderie between Stevie and her little gang of misfits. Seriously, they are all just so unique that they fit together so perfectly. I just want to hug them all. And as per usual with Stevie, comes some kind of cold case murder to solve but this time in London. This one is told in dual timelines, that of the present and in 1995 when the murders take place. I will admit, I really didn’t care for a single one of the characters from the past, they sounded like stuck up and irked every last nerve of mine.
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I did really enjoy the unraveling of the mystery and the final conclusion to the cold case and all the odds and ends that happened in-between. Love this series, love everything about Stevie Bell and the gang, love the mysteries, but that ending?! UGH, that was really one of the worst cliff hangers ever and now I’m extra salty that I have to wait for what is going to feel like forever for some kind of resolution to this ending.
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Overall, a great installation to the truly devious series. This one just came out on 12/27 and if you enjoyed Stevie’s antics in the past be sure to pick this one up!
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What is a series you always recommend?
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#netgalley #netgalleyearc #earc #electronicadvancedreaderscopy #fourstarread #fifthbookintheseries #trulydeviousseries #ellinghamacademy #solvingmurders #steviebell #yamysterythriller #murder #pastmeetsthepresent #nineliars #maureenjohnson

In the not so distant past of 1995, a group of nine close friends celebrated their pending university graduation by spending a weekend at a large country estate. Two of the nine were murdered. Fast forward to the present and Stevie Bell, who has been the murder-solving heroine of the Truly Devious mystery series set at a Vermont boarding school. When Stevie receives an invitation from her boyfriend David to come to London to solve a past murder there, she finagles a study week abroad with her three closest friends. With alternating chapters describing the two sets of friendships and their reaction to the 1995 murder, the pace picks up as the week abroad winds down. While there is some satisfactory resolution, the twist at the very end is a clear opening to the next in the series.

Another fantastic addition to this series. While this one can be read as a standalone I wouldn't recommend it. The characters have evolved a lot from the first books and the relationships are easier to understand if you have read the first books. Plus they are really good books! I loved the mystery itself and its Agatha Christie vibes. It was fun that this book took us overseas for the mystery I really enjoyed the mystery itself and I thought the ending was good. Looking forward to the next book!

Reading Between the Wines book review #15/115 for 2023:
Rating: 4🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷
Book 🎧: Nine Liars
Author: Maureen Johnson
Genre: Teens Y&A
AVAILABLE NOW!!

Sipping thoughts: This is the 5th book in this series but only my 2nd. I still was able to follow the story. Although young, Stevie is such the Detective. She is on a trip to visit her boyfriend in London and gets pulled into solving a cold case over 20 years old. I love how the present and past collides. Stevie is more than determined to solve the case. The last line of the book has me on edge for the next installment.

Cheers and thank you to @NetGalley and @HarperCollinsChildrenBooks an advanced copy of @NineLiars.

#NineLiars #MaureenJohnson #HarperCollinsChildrenBooks #NetGalley #advancedreadercopy #ARC #Kindle #Booksofinstagram #readersofinstagram #bookstagram #nicoles_bookcellar #bookworm #bookdragon #booknerd #booklover #bookstagrammer #bookaholic #bookreview #bookreviewer #IHaveNoShelfControl #ReadingBetweenTheWines #fiction #thriller #suspense #mystery #TeensYandA #TeensY&A

The Truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson is one of my favorite young adult mystery series. I thought the series would be over at book 3. I was so excited when book 4 came out, and here we have book 5. Based on things that happens in the book I'm excited that it seems there will be a book 6. Stevie and the gang are in England this time. There is a mystery for Stevie to solve, based on murders that happened in the 1990s. The Nine - the comedy troupe in the 90s who has several members of their team get murdered seems like a very interesting group dynamic. Stevie has very little evidence to go on and she's facing internal conflict over her future and there are also strange dynamics in the relationships with her friends. I'm hoping that in book 6 Stevie will show some more growth. It seems her friends are all growing and coming into their own and Stevie is a little lost.

Nine Liars is Veronica Mars meets BBC’s Sherlock. It’s the 5th book in the Truly Devious YA detective series, but can be read as a standalone (I’ve never read the other books and was able to jump right in).

It’s Stevie Bell’s senior year and while her friends are busy making plans and applying to colleges, she just can’t get her head in the game. She’s at loose ends since solving her last mystery and finds herself unable to focus on school, lost on how to turn her detective skills into a college acceptance. She also really misses her boyfriend, David, who left to study in England. Luckily, David has a plan for them to see each other and also give her some much-needed distraction under the guise of a “study abroad” week in London with her friends. Also luckily, his friend Izzy has a murder mystery for Stevie to throw herself into.

Izzy’s aunt was part of a very close circle of friends at Cambridge who formed a comedy group called “The Nine”. The Nine were as close as any friends could be, living together in the same house and all dating each other. In the summer of ’95, a weekend in the country starts with a drunk game of hide-and-seek and ends with two of the nine being murdered with an ax and discovered in the woodshed. The killer was never found. Nine Liars alternates between current-day Stevie and friends, and flashbacks to that fateful weekend. It’s a bit jarring and disjointed at first going back and forth with seemingly no connection, but eventually things begin to flow together and it works very well in drawing the reader into the mystery.

Stevie can come off as a “not like other girls” girl – confused by makeup, only wearing hoodies, and scandalized by the idea of wearing anything besides the plainest of cotton underwear. It’s not that she doesn’t care about these kinds of things, because plenty of girls don’t, it’s how often it’s emphasized until it becomes a defining personality trait. She also wears the same salad-dressing-stained black hoodie every day for a week straight while visiting her boyfriend in London (I was begging her to at least give it a rinse in the sink – she wore the thing while meeting witnesses and even when visiting the country estate as a guest/investigator). It began to toe the line of grating but someone managed to fall just this side of quirky and charming in an “everything else is just transport” Sherlock-y way.

There are a lot of characters to keep straight in Nine Liars. Outside of Stevie, David, and Izzy, we also have Stevie’s friends Janelle, Vi, and Nate. Also there’s The Nine to keep straight, and well, there’s nine of them. All of the current-day parts of the book are told through Stevie’s perspective, but the flashbacks are through the perspective of multiple members of The Nine. While it’s a bit to juggle, the author does a great job of making it manageable and not too confusing.

Overall, I ended up really liking Nine Liars and can’t wait for the next book in the series (especially after that ending! Reader beware, this book ends on a cliffhanger, so if you’re a person that would be bothered by that be forewarned). The mystery as it’s presented is extremely engaging and following along with Stevie for that “aha!” moment had me glued to the pages. I really enjoyed the murder mystery, Stevie’s detective work, and most of the characters (I’m looking at you, David). Definitely a book that draws you in and keeps your attention until the very last letter.

Persuaded by her boyfriend, David, who is studying in London, Stevie Bell and her friends go to London for a week and promptly get involved with a mystery that Stevie is determined to solve. New friend Izzy in London introduces her to a cold case from 1995. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University had a drunken weekend at one of the friends estate and two of the nine ended up dead. There was no break-in and the case was never solved. But one of the seven knows what happened and Stevie sets out to find out the truth.

I enjoyed this book but probably not as much as the other Stevie Bell mysteries and it's because of how the character of David is portrayed. He comes across as a moody, self absorbed and not very interested in Stevie. He did not add much to the story and Stevie should cut herself loose from him. Her friends Janelle, Vi and Nate are great and it was fun to watch their interactions with each other.

WTF.

I love Stevie Bell mysteries, and could read one every year for the rest of forever, but that being said, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ENDING MAUREEN?? Ughhhh...

The mystery was really great in this one, the friend group is still amazing, and I loved the English countryside setting, but I am definitely over the relationship drama. It felt a little unnecessary.

As stated above, I will of course still read any and all Stevie Bell books, my heart just hurts right now.

*Thank you to Netgalley and Katherine Tegen Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.*

Another classic in this series! Now there needs to be another one though, for closure with something I cannot say for spoilers sake. 4.5/5 stars for me on this one!!

This is another solid mystery in the Truly Devious collection featuring Stevie and her friends, this time as they try to solve a decades-old murder in England. Unlike the others in this set, this one was a bit mature sexually for the middle school crowd, which will probably disappointing to many of my students who are fans of the series. High school libraries, however, should definitely purchase where Truly Devious, or other contemporary murder mysteries are popular.

Maureen Johnson has a particular sense of wry humor that really appeals to me, and is always the highlight of her books for me. Nine Liars is filled with plenty of her quips, and a stand-alone mystery (though a bit of a non-plot cliffhanger at the end). I wouldn’t start here if you haven’t read the original trilogy, but this is a fun installment for those rooting for anxious, awkward Stevie.

Yay - more Stevie Bell! I am addicted to this series and have devoured each and every book in the series so far. This is no exception - and it ends on a cliffhanger! I am already anxiously awaiting the next book in the series - and yes, while the mysteries after the third book are basically standalone mysteries, it's better to read as a series because the characters grow and their relationships develop and change.

I am obsessed with this book. This series just keeps getting better and better. And the mysteries are harder to solve, and Stevie is such a unique character.