Truly Devious 3

Ah, finally, everything is solved. 

SPOILERS

Stevie works to solve both cases in this final book of the trilogy. Naturally, they are tied together by something other than just the location. 

There's a huge blizzard coming to Ellingham and a strange accident during Janelle's presentation of her Rube Goldberg device leads the administration to close the school for a while. They rush to get everyone out before the storm hits, except David makes an appearance and talks the Minerva crew into staying. This includes Stevie, Nate and Janelle, of course, but also Vi, Janelle's partner, and Hunter, the nephew of Stevie's advisor who died in the fire at the end of the second book. 

Stevie and Janelle find Francis's diary from 1936 in the walls of her room. David recruits Hunter and Vi to help him go through the flash drives he stole from his father, trying to find something to ruin his presidential campaign. Janelle and Vi fight over this. David and Stevie are still fighting. It's so pleasant. 

Stevie goes off on her own, having worked out something in Francis's diary and ends up falling into a hole, down into Ellingham's secret grotto, which Albert was working on as a present for his wife, Iris, back in the 30s. David follows her and the two are trapped, but then they find Francis's dynamite stash and try to blow their way out. Germaine surprises everyone by appearing and coming to the rescue. 

Back at the Great House, Stevie works everything out and presents her case to the gathered students and faculty members. And Larry appears just as she's wrapping up, ready to stop the culprit from fleeing and reveal where Alice's body has been hidden. 

So the Truly Devious letter was never connected to the case. We know Edward committed suicide in France when the Nazis arrived, but Francis's life remains a mystery. We know George Marsh, Albert Ellingham's pet FBI guy, was actually the one behind the kidnapping, aiming to use the ransom to pay off gambling debts. Everything went wrong though and Iris ended up shot and Alice was missing. Marsh, in the flashback chapters, finds one of the guys he worked with and forces him to lead him to the very remote home where they left Alice with a random couple. Alice sadly died from the measles only a couple weeks ago. Marsh is furious. He digs up Alice, kills the kidnapper and buries him in her place, then kills the couple because they didn't take her to a doctor, having figured out who she was. Marsh returns her body to her home and buries it in the tunnel behind the house, but is discovered by Leonard Holmes Nair, the painter, and Marsh tells him the story of finding Alice. Oh, and the other family friend, Flora, was revealed earlier to have been Alice's mother, and in a later chapter, she tells Marsh he's the father. Nair figures this out, too, but he and Marsh agree never to tell Albert Ellingham and also to let him still believe Alice is alive somewhere. Eventually, Albert would realize Marsh was the culprit and the two would blow themselves up in a boat. 

That takes care of the past mystery. The connection to the present day is that head admin Charles found the codicil added to Ellingham's will, stating that money would be set aside for Alice until her 90th birthday and if that passed without her being found, it would go to the school. Charles worked with Dr. Fenton, Stevie's advisor from book two, thinking she'd cash in and they'd share the money, as it couldn't be done by someone working for the school. Hayes and then Ellie both had to die in books one and two because they found out too much. Fenton changed her mind and then Charles had to kill her, too. He never murdered anyone directly but set them up to be in situations that were fatal. He was also the one who projected the message onto Stevie's wall in book one, and the one who trapped Stevie and David in the grotto in this book. He even had Hunter stay on at the school so he could then be the one to collect the money. 

How? Because Charles found Alice's body when the workers began excavating the tunnel. Larry finds it hidden in the wall. Charles is held overnight but ends up killing himself. David's group finds blackmail stuff on the flash drives and destroys it, so his dad can't use it to blackmail anyone anymore, leading to a ton of his supporters backing out, as they were only there because of the blackmail. The couples all make up and even Germaine and Hunter start a thing. The school reopens. David is out campaigning for another candidate who would have opposed his dad if he hadn't had to back out of the run for presidency. 

I liked this one the best, I think. The only thing I didn't like was Mudge getting hurt in Janelle's accident and getting zero screentime. I love Mudge. Janelle was a total badass and Nate was awesome. It felt more well-rounded character-wise than the first two. 

Oh, and Stevie gets the fame from solving the Ellingham case, but not the money...because she's the only one that realizes Alice was never related to Iris or Albert at all. The DNA results on the little body in the wall aren't a match for the Ellinghams. She won't say anything though to try to prove her case. She'd rather the money go to the school. 

Next up, there's a standalone book about a summer camp mystery!