A review by camiclarkbooks
Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Stevie Bell is back! The fifth installment of her “Truly Devious” series, “Nine Liars,” was another fun YA cold case murder mystery, though it lacked some of the charm of the previous books.  

“Nine Liars” sees Stevie Bell struggling with her senior year of high school, unsure what she’s going to do next. Her friends are focused on college applications and her boyfriend, David, is at university in London, which leaves Stevie alone with her thoughts and worries, until David suggests she and her friends come to London for a study abroad. 

While abroad, Stevie learns about a double-murder from the 1990s, that the police wrote off of a burglary gone wrong. A group of nine tight-knit best friends played a drunken game of hide-and-seek while on vacation at a country house. The next morning, two of them were found dead, murdered with an ax. A relative of one of the remaining seven friends believes that there is more to the story and convinces Stevie to investigate. 

“Nine Liars” had a lot of promise to deliver more of the quirky Stevie Bell readers loved in the previous books in another destination murder like in “The Box in the Woods.” Instead, “Nine Liars” felt like a sitcom episode where the characters go on vacation. 

The book spent a lot more time focusing on Stevie’s personal life, particularly her long distance relationship with David. Previous “Truly Devious” stories have shown us that when Stevie’s investigating, it’s all-consuming, usually to the detriment of her personal life. In “Nine Liars,” it’s essentially the opposite. While this is probably excellent personal growth for Stevie, it’s not the character readers love. 

All in all, “Nine Liars” was a good YA mystery with the same clever twist reveals that the “Truly Devious” series is known for. However, the case was rushed and the characters felt flatter than their usual vibrant selves. 

This murder mystery would have been stronger as a duology, but since Johnson recently signed a deal for two more Stevie Bell mysteries, it’s likely that “Nine Liars” will serve as a bridge to a new arc for the peculiar teen detective. 
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