Skip to content

The Hand on the Wall

The Hand on the Wall

MysteryThriller
Pages
369
Published
2020
Language
English

Synopsis

Three people are dead at Ellingham Academy, and a massive storm is heading straight for the Vermont boarding school. While the rest of the campus evacuates, teenage detective Stevie Bell decides to stay behind on the isolated mountain. She is close to solving the decades-old Truly Devious mystery, but she must survive both the elements and a killer who is still on the loose.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

TenseAtmospheric
Dark AcademiaAcademyLocked RoomDual Timeline

Genres

Mystery Thriller YA Young Adult Paranormal

About the author

M
Maureen Johnson

Maureen Johnson (born February 16, 1973, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American author of young adult and mystery fiction. She holds a B.A. in English from the University of Delaware and an MFA in Writing from Columbia University. Best known for the Truly Devious mystery series and the Shades of London series, her other works include 13 Little Blue Envelopes and Let It Snow (co-written with John Green and Lauren Myracle). She has also contributed novellas to Cassandra Clare's Shadowhunter...

Characters

Stevie BellProtagonist
David EastmanSupporting
Alice EllinghamSupporting
All characters in The Hand on the Wall

Frequently asked questions

  • Can this book be read as a standalone, or do I need to read the previous books first?

    You must read the first two books, Truly Devious and The Vanishing Stair, before starting this one. Because it serves as the direct conclusion to the overarching mystery established in the first two installments, the plot and character arcs will not make sense without that prior context.

  • Does this book fully resolve the central Truly Devious mystery?

    This installment fully wraps up and solves both the historical 1930s Ellingham kidnapping case and the modern-day murders that occurred at the academy. While the author has written subsequent standalone novels featuring the same protagonist, this book completely resolves the main trilogy's central puzzle.

  • How is the story structured compared to the previous books?

    The novel maintains the dual-timeline structure used throughout the series, alternating between Stevie's present-day investigation during the campus evacuation and historical flashbacks from the 1930s that gradually reveal what happened to the Ellingham family.

Read all 4 reviews