The Hand on the Wall (Truly Devious, 3)

Now that is how you end a series. I mean honestly each book got better and the number of reveals in this last book still has me stunned. I wish this story didn’t have to end, I undeniably love Ellingham Academy and all of the characters. The mystery was spectacular and I had absolutely no idea whatsoever throughout the whole book who the culprit was. If I had to describe The Hand on the Wall I would use riveting, amazing, entertaining, a wild ride, and a masterpiece. At the end of The Vanishing Stair we are left with Stevie somewhat solving the Ellingham murder case. Wrong. The amount of detail and layers this mystery has is amazing, not to mention the 1936 murder and the murders that are happening present day intertwine is mind blowing. I can’t express to you how utterly shocked I am at how much was revealed and the fact that I had no idea about any of it. In the final installment we follow Stevie at Ellingham, but during a huge blizzard that has the school evacuated. Of course, Stevie stays with Nate, David, Vi, Janelle, and some of the school professors. It’s honestly a bit creepy knowing all of this is going on when the power is out, there is literally a blizzard dropping feet of snow, and a murderer could potentially be on the loose. One of the reasons I love this book so much is because of Stevie and her friends. Stevie is weird, but in a good way, quirky, and loves her crimes and mysteries. Even though everyone around her thinks she is a bit delusional for trying to solve this case, she never gives up. She is such a relatable character and I mean I love how peculiar and strange all the other characters are. “Stevie would rather eat bees than share her tender inner being with anyone else – she didn’t even want to share it with herself.” I mean that not only made me laugh, but I completely agree with Stevie and I just love her. The biggest part of this is obviously the mystery, and still I’m sitting here trying to process the ending. It was just such a mind shocker that I’m still processing everything. This series has one of the best who-dun-it aspects. Thank you, Maureen Johnson, for writing such a masterpiece.

I finally had a chance to finish this series. And you know what? It was a pretty fun ride. Sure, it had some iffy moments, but at the end, I don't regret reading this and could even see myself rereading this at some point - if for no other reason than to look for any clues or hints that I may have missed in the previous books. As I sometimes do when reviewing the last book in a series, I'm going to discuss the work as a whole in order to minimize spoilers. However, if you are wanting to read this series without any inkling as to what you might expect, I would recommend not reading any further. Initial thought: this series should have been a duology. I expected the first book to start off slowly so that characters could be established and readers could adjust to the format and pacing. However, I didn't realize just how long it took for the plot to really get interesting until I reread it. The present-day murder doesn't even occur until more than halfway through! 😵 Once this happened, things did improve with questions starting to stack up and everyone looking like a potential suspect. 👀 The second book also started off slow with quite a bit of time being diverted to a secondary storyline - which I absolutely did not care for. Some new discoveries were made and only a few questions answered by the end. Overall, it felt like the first 75% only served as setup for the last 25%. As good as that last quarter may have been, it didn't negate the occasional trudging necessary to get there. In my opinion, this third book was the best installment by far. It should go without saying that it is by no means flawless, but I highly enjoyed seeing how everything came together here at the end. I also noticed that most of the petty teen drama and random side quests had lessened which allowed for more time to be focused on solving the mysteries. While the King storyline was still present, it felt disjointed and had a resolution that I felt came about too easily. From the very start, I was 100% here for the 1930s mystery and it remained my favorite aspect throughout the entire series. I loved piecing together the story through all of the flashback scenes, interview transcripts, newspaper clippings, etc. There were some really well done twists (one even within the first few pages of this last book) that caught me off guard and yet made perfect sense. The modern-day mystery was not as good, but still intriguing enough. I was satisfied with the ending even though I had figured out the big reveal before it was announced. (Although if I figured it out, that probably means it wasn't too hard to do. 😅) My one complaint here was that I found some of the developments to feel forced or implausible. For instance, there was a certain character that showed up out of absolutely nowhere at the end and the reasoning given for their appearance made no sense. Speaking of random characters, I felt like a lot of the first book and some of the second was spent on secondary and even tertiary characters that never ended up mattering to the main plot. Perhaps their only purpose was to make it harder for Stevie/the reader to identify the true culprit? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Maybe, but I got annoyed having to keep up with some of them. I did appreciate the consistent and (from what I can tell) accurate representation that was present throughout the series. While it may have taken me longer than usual to connect with these characters due to how shallow and caricature-ish some of them were at first, I actually found some to be quite likeable - especially Stevie, Janelle, and Nate. If the focus of a particular chapter wasn't directly tied to one of the mysteries, then I wanted it to be about Stevie and her friends. On her own, Stevie did not make great decisions and was a bit frustrating. She was always a stronger character whenever she was involving others in her investigations, collaborating with them, or just hanging out and talking. The one aspect of these books that I never understood was the relationship between Stevie and David. While at least Stevie had some good moments to counteract any irritation I might have felt for her, my feelings for David never changed. He started off as a rude, self-centered jerk and by the end, I really didn't see much of a difference. He constantly toyed with Stevie's emotions and had such a hot/cold persona that I'm still not sure what was real or not. And somehow that's supposed to be attractive? Well, apparently he's "gorgeous" so that makes it all okay, right? 🙄 Even with my criticisms, I maintain that this was a solid, YA mystery which kept me quite entertained. I think anyone who enjoys stories with dual timelines, whodunnit cold cases, quirky characters - and can handle the extra drama thrown in - might appreciate these books as I did.

And just like that the great mystery is solved and all it needs is a cookie for Elvis. “Hand in the Wall” presents it’s case giving us a satisfying conclusion to a kidnapping and murder plot that has carried Stevie and us readers through the first two books. With the Academy deemed unswfe and a snow storm locking everyone inside a settling not unlike an Agatha Christie novel sets the stage for a final showdown where the past and present collide and the truth about Alice is revealed. I really love these books and all the references to true crime that round out Stevie’s character as she and I are nearly the same person where it comes to all of that and I couldn’t wait to see how she would crack the case. Everything from the subtle misdirects and isolated setting made the tension extra thick for this final book and I couldn’t get through it fast enough. I loved how all the characters came together and some of those who were more in the background were able to prove their skills when tackling the final moments of the mystery with my only complaint being that of David. I have a weird relationship with him and the idea of he and Stevie together as I spent a good portion of the first two hoping they could make it work only to get to this one and praying they never crossed paths for the entirety of the story they are at odds until the last handful of pages where it’s the one loose end that’s tied up too quickly to make sense. These are really great books and like always I’m going to plug My Favorite Murder because it’s obvious Maureen is a fan and most of the murders Stevie discusses in this book are featured in their own episodes of the podcast.

From the 1930s glamour set to the present era's tech savvy generation of students, Stevie bridges a gap with research & an uncanny understanding of what makes people tick, metaphorically & literally. Well paced, keeps you guessing & most importantly, kept me entertained during the unspooling process, across several enjoyable books. Unputdownable is the highest praise I can give any book, & this is that.

Haven’t read it yet but the quality of the book is really good and it didn’t come with any wrinkles os anything like that.

Me gustaron mucho los dos primeros libros, los personajes son interesantes y se van desarrollando atractivamente durante el primer y segundo libro. Pero este tercero mas bien parece que fue escrito con prisa, con ganas de terminar y cobrar un cheque. No hay historia, no hay misterio y no tiene una buena resoluciòn. Lástima!

It looks like its brandnew even though its a secondhand book. the book arrived safely, i was not wrapped with bubble wrap so that's minus 1 Star for me. but yeah everything is perfect.

C'est le troisième tome de la série Truly Devious. Fin de l'histoire et de l'enquête sur Truly Devious, j'avais beaucoup aimé les 2 1er tomes et voulait donc avoir les réponses et découvrir qui était Truly Devious, qui étaient les coupables des meurtres du passé et ceux du présent. Un troisième tome un peu repetititifs, c'est du Young Adult donc il faut que le mystère soit plus facile à comprendre et à résoudre mais cette histoire aurait pu être racontée en seulement 2 tomes je pense. J'ai laissé une note élevée car le livre est d'occasion mais on aurait dit qu'il était neuf et qu'il n'a pas été lu. Je recommande ce vendeur!