I got a note, she said casually, from a guy who owns a summer camp. He read about me, what I did at Ellingham. He asked if I wanted a job working there as a counselor. I guess he thought I’d be an interesting addition, you know, something extra for campers. obviously, it's nice to have a whole three books to wrap up a murder mystery storyline because it gives more space for things to go wrong, more room for development, for learning to love the characters and the writing style and the world, but the author still pulls off the one book story arc just as well as the original trilogy, and let me just say, i would be happy with at least three more of these books but i understand if she decides to leave it here lol The message is from the new owner of a kid's summer camp, Shady Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls. Stevie is intrigued because she knows this camp.

Maureen Johnson’s The Box In The Woods Review

at first i had high hopes. halfway through i thought maybe i could give it a three and talk about what happens when hercule poirot meets i know what you did last summer. so you can imagine my disappointment when i realized there was info dumping at 90%, which honestly shouldn't have surprised me at all considering our dear stevie bell goes on long bike rides, gets involved in arts and crafts, stares at the ceiling thinking about her boyfriend and generally does everything but investigate for the most part. the 1978 case was interesting which is what pisses me off. this could have been such a good book if it had nothing to do with stevie (or any outsider solving the case forty years later, really). The author really shows off her craft and finesse with The Box In The Woods by making this a solid read for those who haven’t read the first books in the series. As someone who hasn’t read the first three, it was easy enough to follow along with the characters and their established relations. More importantly, there were no spoilers (that I could tell) from the original mysteries, and she didn’t spend a lot of time explaining the past, which can be tiring for familiar readers. Johnson managed to find a really nice balance between the two extremes. Janelle is made head of Arts and Crafts because she’s the most artsy. Stevie pretends to be her assistant. Nate becomes the Librarian and plans to continue working on his book. Susan calls Stevie to talk about Allison. Susan wants to meet Stevie, so Stevie and David drive out to see her. Oh, good. I can’t let them shut down my lab, not when I’m so close. Soon my creation will come to life!”What’s that you’re reading? her mother said as she passed behind Stevie. She paused, leaning in to look, as Stevie knew she would. Is that a dollhouse? A perfect followup to the three Truly Devious books. New setting, familiar characters, perfectly twisting then and now story with a great aha at the end. I could read books like this every day and not get jaded. Read more Very well done mystery with an interesting young sleuth. Must read more of Maureen Johnson’s books. Read more

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson - Ebook | Scribd The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson - Ebook | Scribd

Sabrina wonders whether Patty’s dad is a Nazi. She wonders what happened to his random guest and whether he was killed. She tries ringing him but it doesn’t go through. Sabrina starts researching the Third Reich. teenagers died in the forest supposedly because of marijuana, but over 30 years later, Stevie Bell is on the case!

Goodreads Summary:

Stevie figures out that Carson wrote SURPRISE on the wall. He’s very pleased that Stevie figured this out. He was setting it up for the podcast. Stevie thinks Carson is an idiot.