Oh my goodness was this a delight. I had forgotten how much I loved truly devious and stevie bell (and her wonderful friends as well). This mystery was full of wit, charm, and quite a bit if hilarity, but also asked serious questions about what detectives have the right to do/power dynamics and dealt carefully with experiences of trauma. The mystery itself was eery the whole time (when will I learn not to read about murder late at night??) and although I did have some suspicions (hello pattern recognition) nothing was ever concrete and the end was absolutely thrilling. I can’t recommend this enough. I’m not as interested in thrillers these days (mostly because of my own anxiety) and maybe it’s the highly relatable anxiety the main character herself struggles with but truly devious is one of a kind and will always hold a special place on my heart.

I'm glad to see some of the old characters again. Nobody really changed except for David who no longer really sucks. The case didn't really interest me much this time which sucked. Even though I didn’t like Carson, he was a good character and I would have liked to see more of him. The writing style was easy and good. Nice October book overall.

2.25, and only because I thought this *slightly* better than The Hand on the Wall. Ugh, what a let down. I genuinely had high hopes for this because, like, look at the premise. Yet Johnson somehow turned this into a boring story with no atmosphere??

The biggest issue was the pacing. There was no thorough investigation of the murders as there was really only one track that Stevie investigated, making the plot THIN. Why weren't there proper red herrings??? And then ALL of a sudden, Stevie has solved the mystery. I'm not even kidding, it just happens out the blue when I thought there would be at least a chapter or more till the big reveal.

And to me, she didn't really solve anything, she just found a diary, and Sabrina did the rest.

In terms of the actual resolution, it was okay, though to me didn't quite fit.

It also felt kind of gross in that it felt like Johnson was capitalising on the concept of undercover Nazis without really addressing the horrors of Nazis and WWII.

The second worst thing was that I don't think Johnson did her research, which made it feel like a cash grab (this was not helped by the fact that the writing was a little sloppy and repetitive, which led me to think it had been rushed through the writing and editing process). Any person interested in true crime worth their salt KNOWS the significance of stabbing as a murder method, especially how many times a person is stabbed, and also knows that spree killers exist. These two things are incredibly relevant to the crime that took place, given four people were stabbed to death (a different number of times) in one night. Yet they are NEVER DISCUSSED. 

Finally, the characters. Nate was a true saving grace in this. I loved him, and I loved his character development (even if THAT felt a little rushed and behind the scenes). I also liked that Johnson set it up in the beginning that the story would only feature Stevie, Nate and Janelle, as I really like this trio and their dynamic. But then DAVID comes on the scene. His presence was simply unnecessary, and he was only included to offer some relationship drama, which wasn't needed as it took space away from the already thin plot.

The drama didn't even go anywhere, as Stevie didn't apologise for being rude and David is still going to England when they didn't even have a discussion about it. Also, the fact that David turned down the money reeks to me of more privilege than if he had accepted it?? Like, that random guy was only going to offer it to him??

Janelle was turned into an ornament which infuriated me. And Stevie herself felt flat and annoying (she is at her most irritating when with David), and the whole imposter-syndrome thing could have been played up so much more to give her some depth. 

So, yeah. I did not like this. I really hope Johnson doesn't release any more books in this series because I will feel obligated to read them as I am a completionist, but I have lost all faith that I might enjoy them. 

Honestly I didn’t know where this book would go, I felt like it would fall flat after the series. I felt like it wouldn’t hold up to the previous books but honeslty  this is probably my second favourite book in the series, first one being the vanishing stair. I felt like we really saw more into who Stevie was, whereas with the first three books we really saw her as this crime obsessed kid. It was nice to see the author dive more into Stevie’s anxiety problems, and as a kid with anxiety I could totally relate. I loved the little small town “Hallmark” vibe of the book. I loved how we learned more about Stevie’s triggers for her anxiety, and I love that she FINALLY got a love interest. I felt like her ending up with David was the perfect ending. Overall, I did feel like the mystery was sort of an afterthought as we really only see a progression in the solving of the case after around page 250.I didn’t mind this however because of how enthralled I was by Stevie’s personal life and her problems. I felt like the ending of the case was very satisfying. ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE PLOT TWIST. And I felt like Stevie finally relaxing and finally admitting her true love to David was an amazing ending. I hope that their will be another book with these amazing characters in it. (Maybe David was hinting at something at the end, I’d love to see Stevie solve some “real life” murder mysteries.)