Common Sense Media Review
By Carrie R. Wheadon
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Fab English manor mystery; includes heavy teen drinking.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Read
What's the Story?
In NINE LIARS, when Stevie Bell's boyfriend David begs her to visit him at his new school in London, they hatch a plan to make it happen. Stevie and her school friends Janelle, Vi, and Nate will visit over the long Thanksgiving break and report back to their school advisor daily about all the museums and landmarks they've toured and all they've learned. After landing in Heathrow, it's all going according to plan until David introduces Stevie to his friend Izzy. Izzy's heard about the famous cases Stevie has solved and tells her about a cold case involving her Aunt Angela and eight of her college friends in the 1990s. Just after graduation two of those friends were killed by an axe at a country manor. And while her aunt rarely talks of it, she let some things slip while on pain medication after a knee surgery, about planted evidence and a missing lock. Next thing Stevie knows, she's invited to Angela's house, or was she? Angela's quite surprised when Izzy shows up with a bunch of Americans. And when Izzy mentions the planted evidence, her aunt clams up and looks panicked. Stevie is convinced Angela doesn't want her meddling, and that she should go on with her trip with her friends and make her advisor happy. And then Angela goes missing.
Is It Any Good?
Popular teen sleuth Stevie Bell stars in this fresh, hip take on the English-country-manor mystery. Author Maureen Johnson always picks the most iconic settings for her cold cases, first a secluded Vermont boarding school in the original Truly Devious trilogy, then a summer camp in The Box in the Woods. Nine Liars splits its time between London and the manor, between the present and the past. In 2022 Stevie arrives in London on a barely sanctioned school trip -- mostly to see her boyfriend David at his new school. In 1995, college friends arrive at an English manor house to celebrate their graduation for one booze-fueled night, one that ends in a double murder. The two storylines converge when Stevie meets David's friend Izzy, the niece of Angela, one of the old college friends. While it's hard to believe, even with Stevie's well-earned reputation, that she would get roped into an investigation in a foreign country at age 16, that's exactly what happens when Angela goes missing. And she's awfully lucky when Angela's safe full of evidence turns up.
The rest isn't luck, however. When Stevie interrogates her subjects she's all business and focus, when she notices things no one else does, she's brilliant as usual. You know she'll solve the case, but at what cost to her friendships and her love life, and how much trouble is she really in at school? Trips to the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey are on their carefully crafted itinerary, not trips to remote country crime scenes surrounded by possible suspects. Scratch that -- one of the remaining college friends is definitely the murderer. Add to all those stressors the real time crunch Stevie is in. She has to find a missing person and solve the cold case, and have a deeply meaningful night in London with her boyfriend before hopping back on the plane in a few days' time. Readers will be as frantic as Stevie to get to the finish line and find out how it all ends.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about all the drinking in Nine Liars. How did the college students in the 1990s approach alcohol consumption? What about the American high schoolers in the U.K., who could drink legally for the first time? What consequences did Sebastian eventually face for heavy drug and alcohol use?
Most high schoolers are already facing choices about their own substance use. What characters have you read about in this book or others that make good choices? What characters make bad ones? What consequences do they face?
In the Acknowledgements section the author says, "I did it. I finally wrote an English country house mystery." Book 4's setting was in a summer camp, and the three books before were set in a boarding school. Where should sleuth Stevie Bell head next? What makes a good setting for crime fiction?
Book Details
- Author :
- Genre : Mystery
- Topics : Adventures , Friendship , School ( High School ) , History
- Character Strengths : Communication , Curiosity
- Book type : Fiction
- Publisher : Katherine Tegen Books
- Publication date : December 27, 2022
- Number of pages : 464
- Available on : Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, Apple Books, Kindle
- Last updated : September 29, 2025
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