The Box in the Woods

Maureen Johnson

2021 • 400 pages

Ratings83

Average rating4.1

After solving the case of Truly Devious, Stevie Bell investigates her first mystery outside of Ellingham Academy in this spine-chilling and hilarious stand-alone mystery from New York Times bestselling author Maureen Johnson.

Amateur sleuth Stevie Bell needs a good murder. After catching a killer at her high school, she’s back at home for a normal (that means boring) summer.

But then she gets a message from the owner of Sunny Pines, formerly known as Camp Wonder Falls—the site of the notorious unsolved case, the Box in the Woods Murders. Back in 1978, four camp counselors were killed in the woods outside of the town of Barlow Corners, their bodies left in a gruesome display. The new owner offers Stevie an invitation: Come to the camp and help him work on a true crime podcast about the case.

Stevie agrees, as long as she can bring along her friends from Ellingham Academy. Nothing sounds better than a summer spent together, investigating old murders.

But something evil still lurks in Barlow Corners. When Stevie opens the lid on this long-dormant case, she gets much more than she bargained for. The Box in the Woods will make room for more victims. This time, Stevie may not make it out alive.

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Series

Featured Series

5 primary books

#4 in Stevie Bell Mysteries

Stevie Bell Mysteries is a 5-book series with 5 released primary works first released in 2018 with contributions by Maureen Johnson.

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

writingpen

This was a fun read. My main complaint is some things felt slightly too convenient. Also, as always with this series I hate the main romance with a burning passion. Thankfully, it was only a minor subplot.

November 1, 2021

Schwoop

This one is strange. Not good, not bad, just ok.

I miss the academy, the summer camp setting could have been so fun if as much effort was made to flesh it out. The mystery was interesting, but the build up vs resolution is so lackluster.

I???ve read this twice and the nazi stuff caught me off guard both times

January 10, 2022

sam <3

pros:

- the mystery was rock solid. it took some really unexpected turns too.
- some twists totally caught me by surprise
- this was really funny. definitely more than i was expecting it to be.
- the writing was very digestible which i loved
- stevie, my relatable queen
- david, the hopeless romantic
- nate is such a softie & a hilarious one at that
- susan & paul are my gay parents

cons:

- the pacing was kinda off. We got a couple of flashbacks and that was it?! the rest of the book was in present time which didn't really make much sense in the context of the previous books
- it was almost like i had read this book before. coz i had, in all the previous books in this series. all of them follow pretty much the same format and it can get really tedious.

Overall, this was probably my favorite installment of this series. I enjoyed it a lot! Hopefully we'll get more of Stevie Bell and this isn't the end. I also gotta read all of Maureen Johnson's backlist.