110. The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

#4 Truly Devious

listened on Libby, borrowed from TPPL

2021
400 pgs.
YA Myst
Finished 12/5/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.17
My rating: 4.5
Setting: contemporary western Massachusetts - kids' summer camp on a pond

My comments: This is a continuation of the Truly Devious trilogy, with an entirely new mystery but same cast of characters.  Stevie Bell is a 17-year old sleuth who has been enlisted by a rich guy who has purchased a summer camp that has been closed since 1978, when four of its camp counselors were murdered in the woods.  Stevie and two of her close friends become pseudo-camp counselors while she investigates the murders.  Her boyfriend, David, show sup, camping across the lake.  It's an interesting mystery, and I like it better than the first Truly Devious books. I DID discover that I didn't like the voice that the narrator gave to Stevie.  It was too throaty or something.  Good mystery.  More to come?

Goodreads synopsis:   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.