Book Review :: The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson
ISBN: 0063032627
Series: Truly Devious #4
Also in this series: Truly Devious, The Vanishing Stair, The Hand on the Wall, Nine Liars
Published by Katherine Tegen Books
on 15.06.201
Genres: Mystery, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Goodreads

The Truly Devious series continues as Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery.

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.

Last updated on 13 February 2023

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The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

After absolutely loving the Truly Devious series, I was super excited to get back into the world that Maureen Johnson had created. The Box in the Woods is a little different in that it’s not the same story as the trilogy but follows Stevie Bell the main character on a new mysterious adventure.

“Most high school students have hobbies. Some play music. Some play sports. Some write , or draw or make things.
Stephanie ( Stevie ) Bell solves CRIME”

As Stevie heads to Sunny Pines camp for the summer with the preface to solve the mystery of the Box in the Woods, Stevie is thrown back into detective mode. While the case involving four teenagers in the late 70s has gone unsolved for decades, the new owner of the camp (where the murders happened) is adamant that Stevie can solve it. But to do that Stevie needs to be at the camp where it happened, and frequent the town of Barlow Corners where people from that time still remember the details of what happened that summer.

It doesn’t take long for Stevie to get some hot leads, and soon she and her friends are running around trying to piece together the mystery of the Box in the Woods.

My thoughts on The Box in the Woods

I knew that The Box in the Woods was going to be good. The Truly Devious series had me reading late into the night and I loved every sentence of it. Maureen Johnson writes in a way that’s entertaining but also keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The Box in the Woods was no exception, and I found myself reading the entire book in about 2 days. Having Stevie back as the main character solving cold-cases was a joy to read, and while the plot didn’t involve anything from the other books (other than references to Ellingham Academy and the general hype around the case that she solved there), it was great to dive back into Stevie’s world.

“Fashions come and go, but jawlines are eternal.”

The story of the Box in the Woods was good; four teenagers were murdered in the woods in the middle of the night, three of them put into a box (hence the name of the crime), and one was found lying dead on the path back to the camp. The mystery surrounding it was intriguing and it was tricky to put the pieces together.

So why the 4 stars, if I loved it so much?

The ending. The big reveal. Usually, you can ‘call’ and figure out what happened in a book like this, or even get close to it. But I will say that I was not expecting it to end the way it did. Usually, you can piece it together, but the last 4-5ths of the book came out of the blue; it was like a whole new idea was introduced that wasn’t really evident anywhere else in the book.

It did tie together nicely, but I do think a few things should have been foreshadowed more, so if you really thought about it you could figure it out.

So just a warning about a bit of a curveball at the end there.

Other than that, it was a great book and I can’t wait for more of Stevie Bell’s stories … hopefully, Maureen Johnson will write more books with Stevie as the main character, even if they are stand-alone like this one.

Have you read The Box in the Woods? What did you think?