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A review by inkhearted
Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson
4.0
I truly can't get enough of the Truly Devious murder mysteries, and in fact--the new one volume-and-done structure is even more satisfying than the original trilogy that started it off.
Stevie stumbles into an entanglement with yet another cold case while on a tour of London to visit David: A brutal double murder among a close-knit group of friends. Unlike the other cases, there isn't a lot of documentation and their chief contact isn't saying much, so Stevie faces her biggest challenge yet.
Thoroughly a page-turner with a dramatic reveal, but overall not quite as tight as the previous one. Once again, Johnson does an admirable job at throwing out red herrings and twists to preserve the surprise, but maybe *too* well? I'm still not sure even now if she did a good enough job selling the motive?
There's clearly at least one more book in the mix and I'm 100% on board for another chilling mystery, but my question at this juncture is what's in store for Stevie herself? Although her friendships remain tight and she's gotten acclaim she's showing symptoms of depression, not just the ongoing anxiety--drifting, aimless. She's unquestioningly been through a lot of trauma but it feels like things are building to a head. Similarly, her relationship with David is really foundering. It remains the weakest part of the series for me. It's hard to justify rooting for the two of them with David absent three-quarters of the time and giving less and less to recommend him the rest of the time. Stevie has more convincing chemistry with her friends than him. It's so perplexing that a big friend group reveal in this book feels more like a tactic than anything else, to try to sway us to not jump "ships." I feel like Stevie is due some self-care and much better treatment, but like with all of 5hrse... we will just have to wait and see what gets revealed.
Stevie stumbles into an entanglement with yet another cold case while on a tour of London to visit David: A brutal double murder among a close-knit group of friends. Unlike the other cases, there isn't a lot of documentation and their chief contact isn't saying much, so Stevie faces her biggest challenge yet.
Thoroughly a page-turner with a dramatic reveal, but overall not quite as tight as the previous one. Once again, Johnson does an admirable job at throwing out red herrings and twists to preserve the surprise, but maybe *too* well? I'm still not sure even now if she did a good enough job selling the motive?
There's clearly at least one more book in the mix and I'm 100% on board for another chilling mystery, but my question at this juncture is what's in store for Stevie herself? Although her friendships remain tight and she's gotten acclaim she's showing symptoms of depression, not just the ongoing anxiety--drifting, aimless. She's unquestioningly been through a lot of trauma but it feels like things are building to a head. Similarly, her relationship with David is really foundering. It remains the weakest part of the series for me. It's hard to justify rooting for the two of them with David absent three-quarters of the time and giving less and less to recommend him the rest of the time. Stevie has more convincing chemistry with her friends than him. It's so perplexing that a big friend group reveal in this book feels more like a tactic than anything else, to try to sway us to not jump "ships." I feel like Stevie is due some self-care and much better treatment, but like with all of 5hrse... we will just have to wait and see what gets revealed.