The B&n Ya Podcast

Whether she’s writing London-set ghost stories, offbeat coming of age tales, or cold-case mysteries, Maureen Johnson’s YA books are full of eccentric supporting characters, eerie and oddball twists, and deeply specific heroes and heroines. Her latest series began with last year’s Truly Devious, combining a present-day riff on the manor house mystery with a 1930s-set cold case murder, both centering on isolated boarding school Ellingham Academy. Sequel The Vanishing Stair hits shelves January 22, and it will answer loads of your burning questions while raising many more. We talked to Johnson about plotting a mystery trilogy, working on a theater production in which everything went wrong, and her deep and abiding love for podcasts.