Book Review: The Vanishing Stair

Oh, the vanishing enthusiasm for the Truly Devious series! I enjoy many aspects of the story line. I love the idea of an exclusive boarding school for gifted young people. The murder mystery from the past, combined with the current slew of deaths, provides plenty of curiosity. I like Stevie, a sleuthing socially awkward girl. I'm just not reeled in by the other characters (moreover, the pronoun they/them for one character simply prompted confusion and awkward sentence construction). Indeed, despite my enjoyment of the basic story, I ended up feeling dissatisfied with the book.

Stevie Bell is fixated on the Truly Devious kidnapping/murder mystery that occurred at the school in 1936. She has dissected every angle and element. At the opening of this book, The Vanishing Stair, Stevie is desperate to return to the school, desperate enough even to accept the aide of the odious (and strongly Trumpesque) Senator Edward King. Once she returns, with the promise to keep an eye on the Senator's son, Stevie acquires her dream job - assistant to an author writing a book about the case. Now, instead of focusing on boring homework, she invests most of her time digging around in the school's attic in search of further clues.

While this book reveals some elements of the mystery, it still leaves the reader hanging. So many unanswered questions: what's up with the odd-ball David? why the house fire at the end of this book? how did Stevie figure out the murderer from one tiny clue? (The reader is privy to a complete explanation in the flashbacks to the '30s.) Alas, I doubt I have enough interest left to invest in a third book. It felt too much like the author dragged out an adequate story into a lengthier one in order to make it a series. The puzzles are not quite as puzzling (the solution to the riddle about the stair is disappointing) and the characters are not as entertaining. What appeared to be truly devious in the first book, turns out to be less significant and key in the second.