3.5 stars. I am definitely a big fan of this series, but this was probably my least favorite book of the series so far. There was a great deal of extraneous historical information that really didn't add to the story for me. I thought this one got bogged down in unnecessary details about London tourist sights and transportation. Our main characters are already very well developed and it helped to be familiar with them as the inclusion of all of the new characters was quite a lot to keep track of. I will continue to read the series, but I am hoping that the next books will be a bit more polished.

I am not sure what to rate this to be honest; 3 stars, maybe?

I LOVE Maureen Johnson. I have devoured all of the Truly Devious books. This one just fell... flat, for me.

*SPOILERS BELOW*
The big twist was an odd reveal and an odd choice. Samantha going down because she fell and mentioned the word police? Didn't seem logical that he would just drown her instead of help her. Unless I missed something in that section? That just made it fall flat for me and the rest of the unraveling was just a oh, ok.

Ugh, but Stevie. That ending for Stevie! Screw you David.

I was really not a fan of the previous installment of this series (the purple one--the name is escaping me at the moment). So, I was a bit wary when starting this one--but I loved the OG trilogy so much I just needed more of Stevie and Co. I ended up loving this! I loved the dual POV, I loved the mystery and setting this time around, and I think the plot proved personality for these characters much better than in the book before this where it felt like the plot and the characters were completely separate from one another. Looking forward to more from Maureen Johnson!

I have loved every book in this series, and this is no exception. I am partial to the original trilogy, but this is right up there. It’s a dual timeline story of a double murder in the 90’s mixed with a trip by Stevie and her friends London for a short study abroad. I definitely recommend it!

Thanks NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 3.5/5 stars.

I love this series with all my heart, and it's honestly the one that got me back into reading mysteries. The original triology is AMAZING. Book 4 was campy and fun. This one? It was painful in the way I loved my mystery and the travel, but all of the characters felt...different. I don't know if it's because they're growing up, or if it's because the series is expanding further than it's meant to. Especially Stevie...she just seemed...more obnoxious? I also wanted more David and Stevie content.

I do like the premise of the murders though and how it felt very Sherlock-y like a game. The added humor of America v. London in things was also great...especially as someone who has been to London.

I wanted this to end happily. It did not. Nothing was wrapped up and it ended quite abruptly to be honest...and that kind of cinched the meh rating from me.

Let's be honest - the "Truly Devious" series was perfection. And when you find a series of books that is just so good, one of your fears as a reader is that the author will do something to ruin it. Luckily, Maureen Johnson is a sorceress and has managed to give us yet another Stevie Bell book that is so crafty, so smart, and so endearing that when you finish it, all you want to do is start it all over again! Can't wait to see what she does next!

I really wanted to like this book. The idea of a girl detective solving cold case murders is appealing to me as I grew up reading Nancy Drew books and Maureen Johnson has created a modern Nancy Drew in Stevie Bell. But like the others, this one just didn't quite work for me. It has almost vague feeling and I finished not knowing how Stevie actually solved the case. The pacing was awkward with the first 41% showing Stevie running around London with her friends. The cold case is told through a couple of flashbacks and police transcripts so I had a lot of stops and starts with this one.

My other issue with this book is the characters. They feel like stock characters. Janelle is the best friend, Vi is Janelle's partner, Nate is there as the other best friend. David is just the boyfriend and Johnson tried to introduce some internal conflict regarding David and Stevie's relationship, but it just felt shoved in to create additional conflict. I don't think that Stevie's friends added much to the story, and I don't think much would have changed if they weren't there with her.

I had trouble getting a handle on the Nine and their story frankly wasn't that interesting. It was hard to keep them straight and the liars part really had me rolling my eyes. It just didn't seem realistic at all.

Overall I just found this book to be disappointing and I don't believe I'll read additional books by Johnson. It's just not what I'm looking for.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Net Galley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I Love the Truly Devious Series and could not wait for this one to come out. It did not disappoint. I love Stevie and her gang of friends. The story flowed well with lots of twists that kept me guessing. It was a great mystery and I loved how Stevie fit into it. The ending though---WHAT was that???
I will be purchasing this for our library. Our students love Stevie Bell and her gang.

I’m so disappointed. I didn’t realize that this was a series when I requested the ARC. The reviews look great and the story seems really interesting. I plan to read soon but need to read the first books in the series first.

Thank you NetGelley for the ARC. I really enjoyed this YA mystery! I am guilty of having not read the prior novels in the series, but luckily it didn’t impact reading this title. For a YA it read more mature, and many times I forgot I was even reading a YA, which I loved!

Keep tracking of the all the characters was a little confusing at times, but overall, it was clear enough. I really enjoyed this author and I look forward to reading the other titles in the series.

Would recommend this title to teens.

What a gorgeous novel full of loveable characters and a storyline that I couldn't put down. This one is a must read!

Nine Liars is a must-read for fans of the four previous books in the "Truly Devious" series. This time, Stevie and her friends go to London under the cover of a hastily-constructed school project (but really so Stevie can see David). They meet David's friend Izzy who tells them about a double-(AXE!)-murder cold case from the 90s that occurred at a country estate where her aunt was staying with eight of her friends. Stevie (of course) can't help investigating and things proceed from there.

I love this series, and this was a particularly enjoyable entry. I do wish there was more about Janelle, Vi, and Nate, and less about David, who I like less and less as the books go on. He's the worst and SO exactly who straight teenage girls are programmed to be into - good lord, did I love his brand of angsty nonsense when I was 15 (one million years ago). Sigh. Anyway -- the mystery in this one is fun and kept me guessing. I'm already looking forward to finding out what happens in book six (please let there be a book six).

Maureen Johnson does it again!

Stevie Bell and crew find themselves in London, visiting David at Cambridge. While there, one of David's friends asks Stevie to look into a double homicide from the 1990s.

In 1995, nine friends from a college comedy troupe head to a country estate to celebrate graduation. During a drunken game of hide and seek, two of them disappear and are later found dead. Can Stevie solve the murder before it has disastrous consequences in the modern day?

Stevie is charming as always in this delightful fifth adventure. Maureen Johnson has created one of the great detectives of our era and I can not wait to see where she takes us next.

This was another excellent mystery starring Stevie Bell and her friends from Ellingham Academy.

It's October of their senior year and her friends are busy planning their college applications. Janelle and Vi want to go to college close to each other but not at the same college. So Janelle has made a spreadsheet... Nate is furiously writing every time Stevie sees him which is unusual because he has been avoiding writing since his book was published when he was a young teen.

Stevie is at loose ends. She doesn't know what she wants to do for college. She's solved some mysteries and none of the emails about new unsolved crimes are interesting her. And her boyfriend David is studying in England for a semester which means it's harder to communicate with him.

When David calls up and proposes that group come to London because he has a friend with an unsolved mystery, they are all eager to go each for their own reasons. They convince the school leader that this will be a great educational opportunity.

In 1995, a group of newly graduated Cambridge students who have been best friends since freshman year go to spend a final week at one of the group's family home. During a drunken game of hide and seek, two of the nine students are brutally murdered. No murderer has ever been found.

Izzy, David's new friend, wants to get Stevie involved because one of the nine was her aunt who said some questionable things about the murder while under the influence of pain killers after knee surgery. Shortly after Izzy brings her friends to her Aunt Ange's to talk about the crime, Ange disappears.

I loved that way the story wove events from 1995, various police reports, and current day activities together. I especially enjoyed the sections from Stevie's point of view because she is a very interesting character. I liked that her inner uncertainties are so different from her outer competence. I loved the setting which ranged from London's tourist sites to a grand English manor.

Maureen Johnson has done it again!

Stevie Bell is back for another stand-alone mystery. This time she's in London, ostensibly to visit her boyfriend David, when she gets roped into helping David's friend Izzy. Izzy's aunt was once part of an exclusive group of nine friends who were also a theater troupe. For their college graduation, they all went to a countryside manor owned by the family of one of the friends. During a game of hide-and-seek, two of the friends were brutally murdered in a woodshed. Now, twenty-seven years later, Izzy brings Stevie to meet her aunt and help solve the case.

I loved so much of this story, especially the setting--London? English countryside? A manor on a sprawling estate? Count me in! I would say the biggest detraction for me was that the love story between Stevie and David took a much more central role in this one, which wasn't my favorite. Honestly, I've just never liked David and Stevie together and I've always felt that their storyline was a distraction in the novels, but it was also always relatively small in comparison to the larger mystery plot. Not so much in the case of Nine Liars. In this book, their relationship is given almost as much space on the page as the mystery is. With that said, I did become a bit more invested in their relationship in this installment.

I'm eager for the next novel, as I'm sure another is coming based on the way this one ended. I hope Stevie stays in London, for my sake--I want more YA British mysteries!

Stevie Bell is what I wished Nancy Drew had been. Stevie is earnest, slightly awkward, makes mistakes, suffers from bouts of insecurity and anxiety, and loves her friends. She is relatable and hilarious at the same time. You need to get to know her.

“Nine Liars” is the latest installment in the Truly Devious series that features Stevie and her friends as they solve a mystery. This time they are visiting London (and Stevie’s boyfriend) and a country manor house where they end up knee-deep in a decades-old murder mystery. Stevie unleashes her well-honed detecting skills to find the killer, but the crew is running out of time before their flight home. Will this case prove to be too complex even for Stevie?

There is much to like about this story and its main characters. Though this is the first in the series that I have read, author Maureen Johnson provides just enough backstory to bring new readers along for the ride. Elements of classic English murder mysteries are sprinkled throughout. Elements of classic teen sleuth stories are there as well (such as the parents who are unseen, but supportive adults).

This book is great for teen and adult mystery lovers. I will be recommending this book to my students and will suggest the entire series to the Bookworms (more on them later, but let’s just say they are buying LOTS of books for a school library). I will be reading the rest of the series (and I SO hope there are more installments).

Thanks #NetGalley and Katherine Tegan Books for an advance reader’s e-copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. “Nine Liars” arrives on shelves at the end of the month.

Oh man, I have to start with the end. I am BROKEN. I need more right now, and it better go in the direction I need it to go.
I love love love The Truly Devious series and have read it over multiple times. I will take any more Stevie stories any day.
I miss being at the school, but do realize we have spent a lot of time in that setting and don't have a whole lot more the explore. Traveling to London did give a dark academia feel, which helped move toward the original Truly Devious style.
The development on Stevie's relationship with David and trying to figure out long-distance showed the growth of both characters.
I thought the mystery was good, enough twists and turns to keep the interest and the story moving quickly.
I need more Stevie NOW!

To say I was excited to jump back into the Truly Devious world with Stevie and her friends was an understatement— I loved the original trilogy and really enjoy Maureen Johnson’s writing style. I don’t read much YA contemporary but something about her combination of gripping mystery and emotional coming of age has always really resonated with me. However, this isn’t going to be the most positive of reviews as I really feel like Nine Liars and The Box in the Woods were pretty unnecessary after the perfection of the original trilogy..

I’ll start off with what I liked. The mystery itself was gripping and I honestly didn’t see the twist coming. With it being dual timeline and not directly effecting Stevie and the crew, the sense of threat wasn’t really there, but I thought the mystery side of the story was played out very well and (mostly) believably. I enjoyed the English setting and thought Johnson did a good job of portraying an extremely close friend group who become so obsessed with each other that things turn violent. I find these character dynamics extremely compelling and it was portrayed in a new and interesting way in Nine Liars.

Onwards to what I didn’t quite like and buckle in, because it’s a lot. Firstly; it really felt like so much of the characterisation that Johnson had built up over books was flushed down the drain in this book. Namely, Nate and David. Nate felt like a caricature of himself; there to pop in the occasional comment or bounce off Stevie’s ideas off of. I really wanted to see more of his reticent, careful personality but instead we got a little shadow who said approximately four words though out the course of the book. In fact, all of the original characters just felt a bit off and I’m not entirely sure how to describe how. And now we come to David. I know he’s not universally liked, which is fair, he is immature and callous, but I do really enjoy him as a character. But man— did Maureen Johnson really have to do him like that?! I don’t want to spoil anything but it’s so unbelievably obvious Johnson wants to turn readers against him. I understand cliff hangers for the point of getting readers to pick up the next book, but the ending of Nine Liars might have just signalled the end of me picking up further books. It was just so unnecessary. Not unlike the book as a whole, if I’m going to brutally honest

I really don’t like leaving harsh reviews but when an established author with a well loved series continues to drag it out at the expense of the characters, it really rubs me the wrong way. I’m not sure if I’ll pick up future books or recommend the series past The Hand on the Wall.

I feel as though I couldn't possibly not love one of these books although the Stevie/David romance aspect was wearing on me a bit.
I don't remember it irritating me in past books so maybe it was just the ending of this one that pushed me over the edge. Other then that I enjoyed the book. I liked the flashback to 95 chapters and found the nine to be an interesting group and I will say the murderer wasn't even on my suspect list so that was a total surprise.
I'm a bit nervous as the crew is applying to colleges and the idea of them splitting up is giving me anxiety. Just wouldn't be the same without all of them.

Unfortunately, I think I’m done with this series. The last two books have not captured my attention and imagination like the original Truly Devious.