Week 10 Review: The Box in the Woods

From Goodreads:

After solving the case of Truly Devious, Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson.

Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she's back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.

But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.

Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders.

But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.

My Review:
Wow, this was such a fantastic read! I really enjoyed the original trilogy, and now that we've gotten a 4th book, this was the first stand alone mystery in the series (though I hope it's not the last, especially with the way this book ended, with the possibilities raised!) Love seeing Stevie work on a new mystery! 

So this was really interesting to see, because Stevie learns what it's like dealing with a fairly recent (as in, people who were around when the bad things went done, who knew the victims and are still grieving their loss) crime. Which was really interesting to watch her deal with that, because while she sees detail, she investigates, she watches and observes, being a people person, she is not. 

But what goes along with that, is that there's people to interview, people who were there. And those interviews do provide a number of insights that it was really interesting to watch Stevie tease out of the interviews that she got.

And man, I wasn't expecting that ending! That it solved what happened in the past, as well as what has happened now, it was so great to watch Stevie put the pieces together for the audience that she brought together. I'm so glad that she put the pieces together, because it could've easily been left unsolved! 

This was such a fantastic read, I loved having more time with these characters and having another mystery, and I hope we get more! 

Author: Maureen Johnson
Series:  Truly Devious #4
Read: March 9th, 2021
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: I love her writing and this series, and it's a Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2021 Book and a WoW Book! 
Publisher: Katherine Tegan Books
Expected Publication: June 14th 2021

5/5 Hearts

5/5 Books

5/5 Stars