Truly Devious

Nestled into any good mystery or detective novel is an air of deception. After all, a good murder mystery is built upon a crime, and if everyone were forthcoming and honest in a detective novel, the heart of the story would cease to exist. In Truly Devious, Johnson highlights the acts of deception used by two characters— Hayes Major and David Eastman— to explore each character’s reasons behind their outright manipulation of the truth. Not all deception is created equal, and morality can become ambiguous in a story like Truly Devious.

Stevie remarks that Hayes’s YouTube show is “okay at best” (44), but “most of it [is] cheekbones and a low, sultry voice” (44). Hayes knows the power of his appearance to sway people to his side, and he is no stranger to using his looks to get what he wants—whether it be YouTube fame or help with his homework. Gretchen tells Stevie that there were “probably four or five of [Hayes’s girlfriends] doing everything for Hayes” (338) the previous school year, and these admirers all were willing to help him out because he was attractive and hard to say no to. Even Stevie falls victim to Hayes’s charm when she allows herself to get talked into making the film with him.