Book Review
Book: The Hand on the Wall (Truly Devious series #3)
Author: Maureen Johnson
Genre: Mystery
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis (Goodreads)
Ellingham Academy must be cursed. Three people are now dead. One, a victim of either a prank gone wrong or a murder. Another, dead by misadventure. And now, an accident in Burlington has claimed another life. All three in the wrong place at the wrong time. All at the exact moment of Stevie’s greatest triumph . . .
She knows who Truly Devious is. She’s solved it. The greatest case of the century.
At least, she thinks she has. With this latest tragedy, it’s hard to concentrate on the past. Not only has someone died in town, but David disappeared of his own free will and is up to something. Stevie is sure that somehow—somehow—all these things connect. The three deaths in the present. The deaths in the past. The missing Alice Ellingham and the missing David Eastman. Somewhere in this place of riddles and puzzles there must be answers.
Then another accident occurs as a massive storm heads toward Vermont. This is too much for the parents and administrators. Ellingham Academy is evacuated. Obviously, it’s time for Stevie to do something stupid. It’s time to stay on the mountain and face the storm—and a murderer.
In the tantalizing finale to the Truly Devious trilogy, New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson expertly tangles her dual narrative threads and ignites an explosive end for all who’ve walked through Ellingham Academy.
New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson delivers the witty and pulse-pounding conclusion to the Truly Devious series as Stevie Bell solves the mystery that has haunted Ellingham Academy for over 75 years.
My review:
The Hand on the Wall was perhaps one of the most anticipated books of this year so far. I’d been waiting for this book to be out since the time I completed book 2 of Truly Devious series last year. I hate reading unfinished series; they make me so restless and curious, and I suck at waiting for the next book to come out. Well, the wait was over this year and I finally got to sink my teeth deep into this beauty. Thank God, it didn’t disappoint me, though I’d be lying if I say I wasn’t scared. This book actually lived up to the hype and I loved it!
The story picked up where it ended in book 2 The Vanishing Stair when Stevie almost solved the century old Ellingham case. Although she did unveil the mystery of real culprit in the case, the real context behind the 1936 murder and kidnapping, the real motive, and a myriad of details which led to the turn of events are disclosed in this books. Not only the mishaps of 1936, but the real unfortunate and spine-tingling mystery behind present day murders is also what is investigated and unveiled by Stevie. The unfolding of past events left me quite shocked as I could not see that coming, but to make a guess at the present day culprit was quite easy. I really loved the way Stevie solved not only past case but also unfortunate series of present events. To be honest, I liked and looked forward to reading the chapters about past history more than what was going on with Stevie and others.
In the past two books I loved Stevie more than other characters, but I’ll have to admit that my preference changed in this book. I almost loved everyone except Stevie. I don’t deny the fact that she is great, but this book didn’t particularly show any character development in her case. She is as great as she was in other two books. On the other hand, we got to read more about David and Nate (I loved both of them), and Vi and Janelle.
The only thing that I did not like about this book was that more than 25% of the book was actually the summary and repetition of what happened in previous books and that somehow annoyed me. I wanted to read something new, some unexpected turn of events, some thrilling facts that’d give me goose bumps, and I only found such events after more than 150 pages. After that, when all the repetition was over, and real drama started, everything was bone-chilling and mind-boggling.
On the whole, I loved this book. It might be a bit slow in the beginning but then it became so captivating that you’d not be able to put it down. The ending is so perfect, though I did see it coming, still could not stop loving it. Great book!
Favorite Lines:
“The wonderful thing about reality is that it is highly flexible. One minute, all is doom; the next, everything is abloom with possibility.”
“Anxiety does not ask your permission. Anxiety does not come when expected. It's very rude. It barges in at the strangest moments, stopping all activity, focusing everything on itself It sucks the air out of your lungs and scrambles the world.”
“I'm trying to figure out if this is the stupidest thing I've ever done," Nate said as he kept up the rear with Stevie. "I don't think it is, and that worries me." "It probably isn't." "I mean, the thing with the files is crazy. I honestly don't even know if I'm going to look at them" "Then why did you stay?" she asked. "Because," Nate said, tipping his head toward David, "when you and he get together, something bad happens to you."
Stevie swallowed down a lump in her throat. She wanted to reach over and grab Nate's hand at that moment, except that Nate would probably receive the gesture with as much enthusiasm as a handful of spiders.”
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