YESSS! This is exactly what I wanted from Stevie Bell’s next grand adventure. Set in London and at a murder house/castle?? I’m just simply obsessed. The mystery was everything, I truly couldn’t figure out who did what, everything remained a mystery for me until the very end!

My favorite thing about this series besides the mysteries are the characters! Stevie’s friends are literally everything, I always feel like we’re getting life lessons from watching them navigating their friendship and this time they did it all in London! Lol there really is something about a London murder mystery. This is quickly becoming one of my chaotic sort of reviews BUT if you loved Truly Devious or love cozy nursery mysteries.. pick up Johnson’s latest book, I feel like it won’t disappoint!

Oh.. and that ending?! 👀👀 I NEED MORE.

My least favorite Stevie story yet. I enjoyed the flashback story very much, it was interesting. The current day Stevie story was not great. All she did was whine and cry the whole time. A majority of her part of the story was focused on her wanting to have sex with David and not actually trying to solve the murder/mystery.

Nine Liars is the fifth book in the truly Devious series by Maureen Johnson and I had a ball reading it.
It features an alternating cast of characters one in present day and one in 1995. I loved the Nine and reading this I thought how fun it would be to have a series based on their shenanigans. These are very vibrant characters an at some points it almost felt like a shame to come back to Stevie's POV.
As a detective book, setting a mystery in a London was a solid choice and I really loved the nods to history.

Now the cons. This book can feel a little repetitive at times which for some readers I'm sure is really helpful for retaining information.

David. His behavior in the books is not my favorite but quite frankly it's bizarre here. He's got and cold. He's grease and mold. And he seems to not understand throughout the book how anxiety can affect someone.
I love Stevie Bell as a character but what the heck does she see in this man and why are none of her friends pointing out wrong David is?
Baffling.
Anyway, this is a well-plotted mystery and I can't wait to see what Stevie does next.
(Just...without David. PLEASE.)

I love Maureen Johnson and Stevie Bell with every fiber of my being. This is one of my all-time favorite YA series, and I am so glad to have more stand-alones outside of the main trilogy. I know cliffhangers are not for everyone, but every time we get one from Maureen Johnson I'm just grateful that it means we'll keep hearing more from her and from Stevie. Def a top recommendation from me to our teen patrons.

Stevie Bell is back. Nine Liars was right on brand for this beloved series from Maureen Johnson, but what is so masterful about this book in particular is that the mystery, the plot, the twists are all growing up little by little, just like Stevie. Very ready for Book 6!

I got an advance copy from NetGalley. Another thrilling mystery that had me guessing until the end. I would love to see another Stevie Bell book in the future, and the ending leaves an open opportunity.

3.5⭐
So far the Truly Devious series has been a solid 4 stars all around. Some I liked more than others, but overall they were good mysteries with solid friendships and typical young adult angst.

However, I struggled with Nine Liars almost from the get go. For the beginning few chapters, we go back and forth between the 1995 group and the current time with Stevie and her friends. This wasn't unexpected, as (if I remember correctly), that's the basic layout of the previous books. For this book though, the back and forth took me out of each storyline. I had a hard time getting refocused on the new timeline. The pacing seemed inconsistent which made it hard to stay engaged.

I know with YA there will always be a certain level of angst, and I'm usually good with most of it. They are seniors, so there was lots of discussion and anxiety over colleges - where to go, where to apply to, who is going where, etc. They were traveling to London, so there were travel issues and apprehension. The relationship between David/Stevie seemed exaggerated just for the drama of it all. It didn't add to the story and actually took focus away a few times. Their conversations about sex were good see but that was about it.

I enjoyed the mystery and had no idea who did it. When Stevie finally got into the zone and pieces started falling into place, I thought 'finally, here's the Stevie Bell we know and love!. The end overall was very rushed. The mystery is solved and that's it. We don't know what consequences the suspect had, or what consequences Stevie had for making all those bad decisions throughout the book. She seemed to have no direction so an ending with nothing resolved may be appropriate. But it wasn't satisfying. And that cliffhanger felt unnecessary and gimmicky. I closed the book feeling disappointed and a little angry, instead of proud of Stevie for another murder solved.

I will be picking up the next one - I want that cliffhanger resolved and to see how Stevie grows from this experience.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maureen Johnson's Truly Devious series never misses. I loved this one! An unsolved English country house murder and Stevie Bell on the case? Yes, please!

One note about this book and the previous one (Box in the Woods) they have some fairly gruesome murders. Just a caveat if you have teens in your life who loved the original three but might be a bit more squeamish or sensitive. This one involves murder by axe.

This is the fifth book in the series, but don’t worry about spoilers for the first four books. This is a totally new mystery for Stevie and the gang to solve. You could read this one without having read the others, but I wouldn’t recommend it. This series is best read in order to feel the full impact of the character’s development. Plus there are references to the previous two mysteries that Stevie has solved that might prove confusing if you are not aware of them.

There is a lot to love about this fifth book in the series. I loved the mystery and the setting as well as the continuing camaraderie these characters share. The blurb says something about laugh out loud moments, and while there are parts that were amusing, like Stevie and David always being interrupted during romantic moments, I wouldn’t classify them as laugh out loud. But I do enjoy their relationship and felt that it was stronger in this book than some of the other ones. Which made the ending and David’s questionable behavior towards the end, all the more puzzling. Hopefully things will work out for them in the next book.

Stevie continues to surprise me with her mind and how it works. How she is able to see the puzzle pieces as a whole instead of individual facts and come up with a solution is fascinating. I loved this English Manor mystery and getting to know all of the suspects. The solution was so simple when it finally comes out, although I am a bit dubious of the murderer’s motivation. That didn’t quite ring true for me.

The story is again told from the perspective of Stevie in the present day, and then the story of the murders that happened in the 1990’s. I really like this set up, as we get to see both sides of the story. Plus we get to see the suspects in a much different light as we see what is happening in the past. I really enjoyed these nine characters as well. It was also nice to meet them in the present day and get to know them now versus then.

I absolutely loved the setting of London and the english countryside. Seeing the gang visit all of the historical sights in London was fun and I could sympathize with Stevie’s reaction to all the different royals and the things they got up to.

If you have been a fan of this series, this newest addition will not disappoint. I will warn you that the ending is quite the cliffhanger. If you have not read this series, what are you waiting for? It is a lot of fun, and the mysteries are very well done.

Stevie Bell meets a classic English murder mystery? Yes, please! After not enjoying the 4th Truly Devious book as much as the first three, this book was such a great read. It felt almost like a locked-room mystery with most of the case happening at a crumbling English manor, complete with gardens and secrets. Stevie and her friends get pulled into a decades old case while visiting her boyfriend. As they try to unravel what happened danger beings to emerge. A few of my favorite things in this book were the setting, the theme of being honest in friendship, and Nate's college application process. It was a fun four star read, perfect for fall!

Stevie is back at it again. During her senior year at Ellingham, her long-distance boyfriend, David, calls her to beg her to spend some time with him while he studies abroad in London. Eager to see him, Stevie agrees. She and her friends plan an educational trip to please their instructors before flying off together. Upon their arrival, David introduces them to his friend Izzy, who takes a special interest in Stevie. The thing is, Izzy's aunt was a witness to the murder of two of her best friends in 1995, and she and Izzy aren't so sure the case is truly closed.

This one was kind of disappointing. I feel like we might be reaching an ENOUGH point with this series. The big reveal felt very shoddy and unpredictable in, not a clever way, but a poorly written way. There was a lot of relational conflict in this book as well, which makes me think we needed a little something to justify writing book six later on. It took away from the actual mystery part of the book and felt weirdly choppy; a strange blend of "oh geez we're all going to college soon I guess this is growing up!!" and a straight-up murder mystery. It was a lot crammed into a short book that also felt oddly long.

Unfortunate. I really had to push myself through this one. Two stars for nostalgia and explicitly using the word "asexual," though.

Full disclosure: I am a 52 year old woman who was so happy to see another book in the #TrulyDevious YA series!

Stevie Bell is back at Ellingham, but not for long. She gets permission for the gang to head to England for a "study abroad" week. But really, Stevie is mainly going to see her boyfriend David, a former Ellingham student.

Things get rough for Stevie when David's friend Izzy is insistent on getting Stevie involved in solving another cold case murder.

I plowed through the first books and was beyond happy to see this one. It doesn't disappoint.

I like how the mystery unfolds amongst some serious teenage angst. Stevie doesn't have all the answers, all the time. She's feeling pressure from all sides and is a bit resentful to get dragged into this new case.

This is such a relatable series for teens. The mystery almost takes a back seat to dealing with relationships, college decisions, friendship hiccups...you know, real life.

One word for parents: I've passed this series on to friends with young teens. This one deals with issues of sex readiness and, briefly, sexual identity. You might want to give this a read first to decide for yourself.

This would be the perfect holiday present for the Truly Devious fan in your life!

Great addition to the mystery series of Stevie Bell and pals. Could be read as a stand-alone, but I would recommend reading all of the series for background. Some parts did seem unnecessary, but I always have to remind myself of the intended audience. Lots of characters, lots of material, lots of fun. Definitely one of my favorite series by Maureen!

I am a huge fan of Maureen Johnson and the Truly Devious series so it isn't any surprise that I loved this book. I was absolutely stoked to see the ARC come! This book is just as charming, interesting, and engaging as every single other book in the series. The characters are, as always, diverse, curious, loveable, hateable, and all together wonderful. I absolutely cannot wait until we can once again read another of Stevie's adventures!

Another Stevie Bell mystery from Maureen Johnson. This time, as Stevie’s boyfriend David is studying in England, Stevie and her pals take the opportunity to travel to London on a whirlwind “study abroad” trip. Of course, once there, Stevie is called on to solve a murder from 20 years earlier that took place at a manor house. Nine Liars is a fun read for budding Anglophiles and fans of locked room mysteries, and one does not need to have read the other Stevie Bell books to enjoy the story.

Thank you Netgalley and Katherine Tegen/Harper Collins Children's Books for allowing me to read and review this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

"We're good at lying. We've been doing it for years."

Nine Liars is the next installment of the Truly, Devious series by Maureen Johnson. We follow Stevie and her friends as they embark on a London adventure to "study" abroad for school... but not really. David, Stevie's long-distance boyfriend, lives in London and invited her and her friends to come spend time with him. David's new, and suspicious, friend Izzy asks and pleads Stevie to help her Aunt Angela solve a murder mystery, from the 90s, that took away two of her closest friends. We are given the flashback POVs of the Nine friends in the 90s and the POV of Stevie trying to solve the case, while also trying to keep her relationship with David afloat.

As excited as I was to read Nine Liars my expectations might have been too high for this fifth installment. One of the biggest peeves I had with this book is the repetitive information. I understand that with mysteries you will be re-reading a few important and minor details, which is fine - it's expected but there have been a couple of times when we would get multiple police reports - all sounding about the same, the flashback POV goes over what happened and who dunnit and then you have Stevie revealing the exact same information again as if we didn't just read it in the last chapter. I don't know if this was intentional or an editing issue but it felt like a waste of time to have to re-read the same thing over again.

Another peeve I had with Nine Liars is Stevie and David's relationship. From the beginning of the series Stevie has always been very focused on the cases at hand and building her friendships with Nate, Vi, and Janelle. Enter David, the delinquent teen of a politician, who wants to do better for himself and Stevie, and the feelings they both developed for each other. When I was reading the other fours books of course the romantic in me was missing the romance and hoped for a little more between David and Stevie as the books released. I liked how their relationship was an "opposites attract" and the sweet moments between them - even with the few rough patches. It always felt like their relationship was on the back burner which is okay because I was invested in the murder mysteries... that is not the case with Nine Liars. Nine Liars literally takes their relationship from a soft 4 to a very high 10. It is at the front and center and it felt off-balanced. As much as I love seeing their relationship develop, it was too much. It took away from the development of the mystery and it was a weird and awkward dance of whether they'll have sex while also dealing with Stevie's jealousy of Izzy being David's closest friend in London.

The mystery itself and the Nine were underdeveloped. A lot of the time I would get confused as to who was who, if I put my kindle down for a period of time. I couldn't remember what anyone looked like and their personalities blended to a point where I would forget who was part of the Nine. In my opinion, I think because we were getting so much more of Stevie and David's relationship we weren't getting enough development in the mystery itself. I adored the Truly, Devious trilogy and The Box in the Woods, which was a great follow-up. Nine Liars fell short of my expectations and I didn't care about what happened to any of the Nine and who the murderer ended up being.

We were introduced to too many characters and one of the new characters to the Scooby Gang is Izzy. I liked Izzy and I would have liked to have learned more about her instead of feeling terribly towards her because we're reading from Stevie's POV. Izzy seems like she would become a good friend later on and I hope she is involved in some way in the next book (if there is one, it has not been announced yet).

David is a little shit, especially at the end. I liked him in the other books but I couldn't jump on the David train for Nine Liars. I'm honestly hoping at this point that either: Stevie will have a different love interest or just be single and try to figure her life out a bit.

What I did like about the book is the London setting and the friendship between Stevie, Nate, Vi, and Janelle. I really liked how supportive they all are of each other. I wish we would have seen more of it.

Overall I am a little bit disappointed. I wanted to love this one but out of all of Stevie's murder cases, this one is my least favorite. I am hoping there will be another installment in the Truly, Devious series.

3.5 stars

This book was good, but I think I am ready to be done with Stevie and Ellingham Academy. While I would read another book if Maureen wrote it, I think this story has been a little bit dragged out. BUT the ending of this ended on a cliffhanger and I need to know what happens next! Obviously I am conflicted about my feelings on this one. On one hand, I love Stevie and the gang, but on the other hand I don't think there is another crime that Stevie could possibly be embroiled in. So where do I stand on this book? I liked it because the characters were great and it was fun being back with them, but the mystery wasn't super riveting and I wasn't a fan of the character development.

See synopsis below from Goodreads:
Senior year at Ellingham Academy for Stevie Bell isn’t going well. Her boyfriend, David, is studying in London. Her friends are obsessed with college applications. With the cold case of the century solved, Stevie is adrift. There is nothing to distract her from the questions pinging around her brain—questions about college, love, and life in general.

Relief comes when David invites Stevie and her friends to join him for study abroad, and his new friend Izzy introduces her to a double-murder cold case. In 1995, nine friends from Cambridge University went to a country house and played a drunken game of hide-and-seek. Two were found in the woodshed the next day, murdered with an ax.

The case was assumed to be a burglary gone wrong, but one of the remaining seven saw something she can’t explain. This was no break-in. Someone’s lying about what happened in the woodshed.

Seven suspects. Two murders. One killer still playing a deadly game.

Received a Netgalley from the publisher. However, at this time (after I started the book), the staff at Harper Collins are on strike due to unfair wages, conditions, etc.

Will leave a review after the strike being held by this imprint’s staff.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the 5th book in the Truly Devious series and, unfortunately, I enjoyed this one the least. With the gang headed to the UK, it felt like "a very special episode of "Truly Devious," contrived to keep the Scooby gang together and also bring in David.

The core locked room mystery was just okay for me. I wasn't that invested in "the Nine" and had trouble keeping the characters straight in my mind.

That said, I do enjoy Stevie's awkwardness and tenacity and would definitely read more books in the series.

Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson is book #5 in the Truly Devious series, which is a captivating young adult mystery series that follows true crime aficionado Stevie & her trusty friends as they jaunt across the pond & stumble into another case. I genuinely love this series & was so excited to jump back in. I loved the change of scenery with the majority of this book taking place on their school trip abroad.
The complexity of these cases in this series never fails to amaze & entertain me. I am such a fan of Stevie, her intelligence, her grit, her determination & even her laser-focused personality. I think she’s a fascinating lead that showcases awe-inspiring detective work while still being a teenager. It’s a tough balance to create & I think it’s done very well.
The case that this book follows centers around a group of nine friends. At the beginning, when one is learning about the original case from years past, one is introduced to the nine friends all at once. Because nine is a rather big group, it’s a bit of an information overload, or at least it was for me & I had trouble distinguishing people apart. However, once I did really get into this story, it was easier keeping tracking of everything.
The wrapping up of the case happened rather quickly 8 didn’t feel completely resolved to me. Perhaps this was done intentionally for the next book & if so, then that makes complete sense!
Also, without giving anything away, my mouth literally fell open in shock at the ending & I had to reread to make sure I read correctly. I am in need for there to be more books in this series because my curiosity is peaked!!
If you enjoy young adult mystery novels, then I highly recommend checking out the Truly Devious series!

Nine Liars by Maureen Johnson comes out December 27, 2022!

Massive thanks to NetGalley & HarperCollins Children's Books for this arc, which I voluntarily read & reviewed. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

Trigger warnings: This book mentions &/or contains murder, violence & gore.

I will post closer to release date & add links once I do!