The Hand on the Wall: 02/15/20

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson is the satisfying conclusion to the Truly Devious YA mystery trilogy. Stevie came to Ellingham Academy to solve the mystery of Alice's disappearance in 1937. But three people have died since her arrival: one from a tragic accident, one by misadventure, and now one in a house fire.

Beset by tragedy and with a looming blizzard, Elligham Academy is shut down. Except Stevie and her closest group of friends decide to ignore orders and hide out at school. As the weather worsens, Stevie pieces together the final clues to solve all four mysteries.

The Truly Devious trilogy is really one long, tightly written novel broke up into three convenient to hold volumes. All three pieces share the same placement on the road narrative spectrum, another sign that they are actually a singular narrative (as The Lord of the Rings is).

The placement on the narrative for the three pieces, as well as the whole, is the tale of marginalized travelers (66), students, traveling through uhoria (CC), both the old school grounds as well as the historic documents, via the maze (CC), in the form of the many dangerous secrets built into the school grounds.

I think the back and forth between present and past as well as the remote school setting would translate well to a television mystery series.

Five stars

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