The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
Truly Devious #4
Mystery/Thriller, Young Adult
Rating:
Synopsis
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.
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Review
The Box in the Woods is the fourth book in the Truly Devious series, and while I love these characters, I don’t know that another book was needed.
I was happy with the ending of The Hand on the Wall. However, while the actual mystery was interesting, the resolution was disappointing. I mean, cold case murders at a summer camp, that sounds amazing. But how it was wrapped up, not only was it unoriginal. It felt a lot like a show I’d watched (I won’t say which one cause of spoilers), but it also seemed to come entirely out of nowhere. And even though it came out of nowhere, I was still about to guess at least some of it.
The characters are still fantastic. I love Stevie and David, but in this one, Nate really steals the show. I love his dry, sarcastic humor. He really made the book for me. Stevie is still very much Steve, and I did enjoy seeing her and David interacting again after so long. I could have enjoyed this more if there hadn’t been a mystery at all, and the characters just got together.
If there are more books in this series, which I would like, I do hope that the mysteries are better.
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