Ellingham Academy is a famous private school in Vermont. It was founded by Albert Ellingham an
early twentieth century tycoon who wanted to make a wonderful place full of riddles twisting
pathways and gardens. ?A place ? he said ?where learning is a game.? In 1936 shortly after
the school opened Ellingham's wife and daughter Iris and Alice were kidnapped. The only real
clue was a mocking riddle listing methods of murder signed with the frightening pseudonym
?Truly Devious.? It became one of the great crimes of American history. Something like that
could never happen again of course. . . . Years later true-crime aficionado Stevie Bell is
set to begin her first year at Ellingham Academy and she has an ambitious plan: She will solve
this cold case. That is she will solve the case when she gets a grip on her demanding new
school life and her housemates: the inventor the novelist the actor the artist and the
jokester. But something strange is happening. Truly Devious makes a surprise return and death
revisits Ellingham Academy. The past has crawled out of its grave. Someone has gotten away with
murder. Truly Devious is the first novel in a murder- mystery trilogy by New York Times
bestselling author Maureen Johnson.
