School Library Journal (Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2019)

Gr 9 Up-Stevie Bell and her friends are snowed in at Ellingham Academy, which was mostly evacuated ahead of a blizzard. Her (possibly ex) boyfriend David shows up with drives containing thousands of files relating to his despised senator's father's presidential campaign, asking for their help to read and interpret them. And while her friends look for connections in spreadsheets and emails, Stevie can get back to work solving crimes. And solve crimes she does, figuring out the answers to mysteries and riddles worthy of the school's founder, Albert Ellingham, himself. This will be essential reading for the many fans of the first two books. VERDICT This trilogy ender is fun, satisfying, and a genuine treat for teens and adult mystery fans.Stephanie Klose, Library Journal

ALA Booklist (Sun Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2019)

At the end of The Vanishing Stair (2019), Stevie Bell solved the infamous, impossible mystery of the Ellingham disappearances. But it's an accomplishment that she's kept to herself: people have been dying in strange accidents around Ellingham Academy, and Stevie, always the detective, is starting to wonder if there's more going on than meets the eye. As Stevie puzzles her way through the mysteries of the past and present, a storm barrels toward Ellingham Academy, and if Stevie is right, it could trap her and her friends with a killer and bring with it a reckoning that will redirect the future. In this hotly anticipated trilogy finale (beginning with Truly Devious, 2018), Johnson pulls out all the stops, filling the thrillingly nimble narrative with classic mystery conventions. Stevie's anxiety reaches a fever pitch as the storm hems her in, and her struggles with her disorder remain honest to the core. A striking foray into an examination of what mysteries can ever truly be solved, and a satisfying send-off for a series that will be missed.

Horn Book (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2020)

In this satisfying conclusion to the trilogy (Truly Devious, rev. 1/18; The Vanishing Star, rev. 3/19), student sleuth Stevie Bell believes she has solved the eighty-year-old cold case of the Ellingham family kidnapping and murders. But before she can tell anyone, she must connect the dots between the past and the recent deaths of three people connected to Ellingham Academy. Her investigation is disrupted by yet another accident (thankfully not fatal this time), the surprise return of her duplicitous ex-boyfriend David, and a massive snowstorm that immobilizes the remote Vermont boarding school. While trapped on campus with her friends, Stevie finally identifies the person responsible for murdering her classmates Hayes and Ellie and her mentor Professor Fenton. But will she be able to reveal what she knows before the killer closes in on her? The ending is grimly gratifying. As a layered, complex character who solves crime while also battling anxiety, Stevie Bell reads like the redoubtable love child of Jessica Fletcher and Adrian Monk. This entire series--inclusive, inventive, and vastly entertaining--has been a boon to young adult literature, a category thirsty for mystery and detective tropes.