The Box in the Woods

May 10, 2021
Sardonic sleuth Stevie Bell returns in this engaging stand-alone sleepaway camp thriller, a follow-up to Johnson’s Truly Devious trilogy. Working at a grocery store deli after solving the famous Ellingham Academy case, Stevie quickly agrees to go undercover when asked to crack the 1978 Box in the Woods Murders, a cold case involving four camp counselors at Camp Sunny Pines in Massachusetts. Carson Buchwald, an entrepreneurial “tech bro,” has bought the camp in order to create a docuseries about the ordeal, and he enlists Stevie to find out who stabbed the four teens—a valedictorian, a “rotten” troublemaker, a pot dealer, and a stoner music-lover—and stuffed three of them into a hunting blind. Johnson’s kinetic descriptions (“a punch of soft-boiled anger”) join towering cliffhangers as chapters switch between 1978 and the present day, and Stevie’s search turns deadly. Johnson includes a winning crew of returning characters (a mostly white cast) in Stevie’s friend group, including savvy engineer Janelle, who’s Black, and author Nate. Though a late-breaking contrivance doesn’t quite hold up, the friend group sustains entertaining rapport as Stevie navigates personal and public histories. Ages 14–up.

June 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-After solving the Ellingham mystery, Stevie Bell is looking at a long summer at home with her parents, working at the local grocery store. But then she gets an interesting invitation from Carson Buchwald, the new owner of Camp Wonder Falls. The camp was the site of a notorious unsolved mass murder in 1978: Four teenage counselors were killed in the woods, and three of their bodies were found in a box with "Surprise" written inside the lid. Carson is making a podcast about the deaths and wants Stevie to help him solve the case. It beats slicing cheese at the deli counter, and she can bring her friends Janelle and Nate along, so she jumps at the chance. But she's only just begun looking around when the word "Surprise" appears on the wall above her bed while she and Janelle are sleeping. Someone wants to scare her off, but who? There are still plenty of people in town who were there in 1978, but Stevie can't shake the feeling that there's something off about Carson. Stevie and Nate are white, and Janelle is Black. VERDICT It's always a pleasure to watch smart, resourceful Stevie piece together a puzzle. Mystery fans will relish this standalone novel in the "Truly Devious" universe.-Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from May 15, 2021
Amateur boarding school detective Stevie Bell is back with a new cold case to crack in a companion novel to the Truly Devious trilogy. After solving one of the greatest murder mysteries of the 20th century, Stevie is at a bit of a loss while back home working at a deli counter during summer break. When the new owner of Camp Wonder Falls--the site of the gruesome (and unsolved) Box in the Woods murders back in the '70s--invites her over to work on the case for his upcoming documentary and podcast, Stevie immediately says yes. It's especially appealing since she gets to invite her closest friends, Nate and Janelle, as well as her boyfriend, David, to tag along. When a new murder takes place just as Stevie starts asking questions around town, the gang find themselves in danger once more. Johnson's hallmark charming humor and lovable characters provide a robust foundation for another cracking mystery, this time ingeniously working with summer-camp and locked-room-mystery tropes. A few snippets relating back to the events in 1978 and Stevie's empathy for the grieving friends and relatives of the dead, who still yearn for answers, provide a strong emotional grounding for the case. Apart from Janelle, who is Black (and queer), most characters are White. Stevie's relationship with her lifelong anxiety is particularly well portrayed. A fantastic stand-alone mystery companion revisits a much-loved sleuth. (author's note) (Mystery. 14-18)

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Starred review from May 1, 2021
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Stevie Bell did the impossible when she solved the decades-old Ellingham mystery at her boarding school last year. Now home for the summer, Stevie finds herself adrift after having accomplished her lifelong goal. But the Ellingham murders aren't the only cold case out there. When Stevie is contacted by the owner of a summer camp that was the site of a gruesome--and unsolved--quadruple murder of four teenagers in the seventies, she jumps at the chance to get back in the game. With her friends in tow, Stevie arrives at Camp Sunny Pines to help investigate the murders, of which there is little evidence due to notorious police mishandling, and help an overeager camp director craft a podcast. But though Stevie remains as savvy as ever, there are many complications in her path: unlike the Ellingham murders, this case is recent enough that family members of the victims remain, and Stevie, always more comfortable with data than with people, is faced for the first time with the more complex truths of her work. While fans of Johnson's Truly Devious trilogy (and there are many) will undoubtedly be eager for this spinoff, Stevie's summertime exploit both stands alone and adds compelling layers to the established characters--an impressive feat.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Johnson builds on the success of her NYT-bestselling Truly Devious series with this standalone spinoff that blends mystery and horror conventions in a summer-camp setting--perfectly timed for summertime campfires.

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July 1, 2021
After establishing the absorbing origin story of Stevie Bell in the Truly Devious trilogy (Truly Devious, rev. 1/18, and sequels), Johnson gleefully takes a stab at the slasher movie trope by sending her teen detective on a cold case at a summer camp. Stevie is offered a job by a wealthy "tech bro" who wants to create a true-crime podcast. He's hoping that she will crack the case of the notorious Camp Wonder Falls murders, where four teenagers were bludgeoned to death in the summer of 1978. Stevie accepts and gets right to work interviewing locals and collecting clues, which is a welcome distraction from her ever-present anxiety and complicated relationship with her boyfriend. But there is someone in Camp Wonder Falls who will do anything -- including murder -- to keep our heroine from discovering the dark truth. This satisfying standalone mystery will delight fans of teen horror flicks and true-crime documentaries, as well as those who prefer their mysteries wrapped up after one volume. Crime history geeks will be particularly tickled by the multiple references to, and author's note about, Frances Glessner Lee, the woman who "basically established forensics in the United States." Here's hoping this highly entertaining volume isn't the last we hear from Stevie Bell. Jennifer Hubert Swan

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2021
After establishing the absorbing origin story of Stevie Bell in the Truly Devious trilogy (Truly Devious, rev. 1/18, and sequels), Johnson gleefully takes a stab at the slasher movie trope by sending her teen detective on a cold case at a summer camp. Stevie is offered a job by a wealthy "tech bro" who wants to create a true-crime podcast. He's hoping that she will crack the case of the notorious Camp Wonder Falls murders, where four teenagers were bludgeoned to death in the summer of 1978. Stevie accepts and gets right to work interviewing locals and collecting clues, which is a welcome distraction from her ever-present anxiety and complicated relationship with her boyfriend. But there is someone in Camp Wonder Falls who will do anything -- including murder -- to keep our heroine from discovering the dark truth. This satisfying standalone mystery will delight fans of teen horror flicks and true-crime documentaries, as well as those who prefer their mysteries wrapped up after one volume. Crime history geeks will be particularly tickled by the multiple references to, and author's note about, Frances Glessner Lee, the woman who "basically established forensics in the United States." Here's hoping this highly entertaining volume isn't the last we hear from Stevie Bell.

(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)