Review: The Golden Tresses of the Dead

After years of trouble and sorrow, the de Luce family is ready for some joy as Ophelia marries Dieter. But the festivities take a turn when the bride cuts into her cake and discovers a severed finger. Her younger sister Flavia is thrilled to have another mystery to solve and takes the finger to her laboratory. Since she has recently joined the detective business with the family's devoted valet Dogger, figuring out whose finger it is and how it got into the cake seems like an excellent first case.

Ophelia and Dieter's wedding is the perfect occasion for our characters to take stock of their shared history and the possibilities of their future. While Flavia is brilliant, she is still a twelve year-old girl whose parents have died and whose sister is leaving the family home. One of the highlights of this book in particular is seeing how relationships have grown throughout the series, as Flavia works alongside Dogger, interacts with her neighbors in the village of Bishop's Lacey, and discovers the new dynamics of the de Luce estate with some family members gone and a new addition there to stay.

In some of the later books, I haven't found the mysteries themselves to be that compelling and I'm hard-pressed to tell you a few weeks later who committed the crime or why. But following Flavia and her family on a new adventure is always a good use of a few hours. Author Alan Bradley stated that this might be the last book in the series, so we shall see if this is Flavia's swan song or if she insists on coming back for a few more mysteries on our bookshelves.

For my thoughts on earlier Flavia de Luce stories, hop over here.

The Golden Tresses of the Dead
Flavia de Luce #10
By Alan Bradley
Bantam January 2019
352 pages
Read via Netgalley

Review: The Grave's A Fine and Private Place

Flavia is taking a short trip down the river with her sisters Ophelia and Daphne and their faithful servant/devoted friend Dogger. But this is Flavia de Luce, and they have hardly started down the river when they discover a dead body. After they fish the body out and have a terse encounter with local law enforcement, Flavia quickly realizes that they are in the same town where several people were poisoned. Are the deaths connected? Of course they are, dear reader, and we are off on another delightful adventure with Flavia and the family.

The first five books in this series are formulaic (in a good way). Flavia finds a mystery in her tiny English town and then she solves it, with the help of various family members and neighbors. In more recent books, Alan Bradley has introduced some truly world-shaking events into the de Luce family. I have never written a long series like this, but I have to imagine that Mr. Bradley knows exactly where he is taking our beloved Flavia.

This is where some of my frustration comes into play though--each book seems to change the family, but we don't really get a chance to see what it looks like before the next crisis occurs. Books seven and eight seemed to hint that the books would go in an entirely new direction and finally give us some answers about the lives and work of Flavia's parents and aunt. But we still haven't received any of those answers and this book felt to me a bit like the middle book in a trilogy--we needed some more information before we could get back to the real action.

The mystery itself in The Grave's A Fine and Private Place is a good one and it's interesting to see the lives of people who don't live in Bishop's Lacey. I also loved seeing Flavia grow up a bit; she even takes a young boy under her wing as a sort of mentor. Most of all, I'm excited to see what happens to Flavia and the family in book ten (which will purportedly be the last one). This story ends with the suggestion of a big change, so I hope we actually get to see what that looks like in book ten and see how all of these threads will come together for Flavia.

The Grave's A Fine and Private Place
Flavia de Luce #9
By Alan Bradley
Bantam January 2018
384 pages
Read via Netgalley

Review: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Flavia de Luce #7

By Alan Bradley

Delacorte Press January 2015

384 pages

Read via Netgalley

Flavia de Luce is not a happy girl. She is sent away from her family and small town English life to become a boarder at Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Toronto, Canada. On her first night at the school, she discovers a dead body in the chimney. Flavia quickly learns that things are not quite normal at this school and determines to solve the mystery as she tries to find her way in this strange new place. 

I've written about my love for Flavia de Luce many times before and I was really interested to see how Bradley would shake up his tried and true formula of big-brained girl in small town. It is difficult at first for Flavia and for the reader to become used to this new environment and these new people. She is incredibly lonely and feels abandoned by those who were supposed to love and protect her. While Flavia is a very independent girl, it takes a whole new level of confidence for her to live without her familiar people and places to fall back on if needed. But she is a very unique characters and so the discovery of the body in the chimney makes her feel right at home.

It takes a good portion of the book for readers to become accustomed to this new location and a whole new cast of colorful characters. Instead of Flavia's sisters, father, and household staff, we spend time with a whole school full of students, a mysterious headmistress, and a science teacher who just might be a murderess. If you needed to pay attention before, you definitely need to read carefully in this book. There are secrets beneath secrets and clues behind clues and only half of them are related to the body in the chimney.

I imagine that it takes courage to shake up a much-beloved series as Bradley has done here. I admire that and I enjoyed reading this story, as usual. This book is unfortunately difficult to talk about in much detail due to the game changing events of its predecessor, the massive new direction that As Chimney Sweepers takes, and the surprising ending of this installment, I think I will hold off final judgement until I see how this new piece fits into the giant, quirky puzzle that is the life of Flavia de Luce.

Are you a newbie to Flavia? You can check out my reviews of previous books here.

Review: The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches

The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches

(Flavia de Luce #6)

By Alan Bradley

Delacorte Press January 2014

315 pages

Read via Netgalley

Note: This review will contain a major spoiler for the rest of the series. Please don't read further if you haven't read all of the previous books!

One fateful spring morning, Flavia de Luce, her father, and her two sisters journey to the train station. After years of uncertainty, their mother Harriet is finally coming home. As Flavia waits, she is approached by a stranger. He tells her that "the Gamekeeper is in jeopardy," which makes no sense to her. But moments later, that same man is pushed in front of the train and dies. What did his warning mean? Who is the killer? This time, Flavia's investigation will take her deep into her own family's past and she will learn closely held secrets about the people whom she loves most.

This series is about to go through major changes and this novel was the perfect transition. As we read, we get the feeling that we are actually hurtling towards something. After five books of half-truths and secrets, the reader and Flavia are equally desperate to find answers. That is the true heart of this series. It's fun and quirky, but it is most intrinsically about a family with deep wounds and dark secrets. Mr. Bradley has made us truly care for Flavia, her family, and the residents of Bishop's Lacey. The possibility of closure and a happy ending is enough to keep us rapidly turning pages. While The Dead In their Vaulted Arches marks the end of this story arc, Mr. Bradley will be writing four more Flavia books. 

Flavia, as always, is so grownup and such a child. She is smart as a whip and excels at chemistry and deduction. But she is also a child who is often left to her own devices. She is lonely and keenly feels the hole in her life where her mother should be. She spends a majority of this story trying to use her chemistry skills to make magic, in a heartbreaking example of childish optimism. But she is also on brink of her twelfth birthday, and about to make a hesitant transition from childhood to adulthood. It is a difficult feat for an author to transition his protagonist from childhood to adulthood and keep utilizing her as the main character. But I have the utmost faith that Alan Bradley can achieve it.

The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches is one of those books you don't want to talk about too much. The joy of this book is starting it on the edge of your seat, just as Mr. Bradley leaves us at the end of the previous book. Reading this story will remind you why you love Flavia all over again. Her wit, her bravery, and her resilience all shine bright as she attempts to solve her most personal mystery yet - what happened to her mother. If you are a fan of this series, this is an addition you won't want to miss. If you don't love these books yet, consider it a gift that you can pick up all six books and read them in one glorious literary binge. 

Reviews: Flavia de Luce x 3

A Red Herring Without Mustard

I Am Half Sick of Shadows

Speaking From Among the Bones 

(Flavia de Luce #3, #4, and #5)
By Alan Bradley

                                                                                  


After I received the newest Flavia de Luce mystery from Netgalley, I realized that I was woefully behind. So I did what any good bibliophile would do - picked up the the three books I needed to catch up on from the library and binge read them in a week. Here are my thoughts on the three books.

Each of the three books involves Flavia solving a mystery in her beloved village of Bishop's Lacey. In A Red Herring Without Mustard, Flavia discovers a newly befriended Gypsy woman nearly bludgeoned to death in her caravan. In I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, financial trouble forces the de Luce family to open their beloved Buckshaw to a film crew. When the leading lady is murdered, everyone is a suspect. Then, in Speaking From Among the Bones, Flavia can't miss a good body so she makes sure to be on hand when the local church digs up St. Tancred, its patron saint. No one expected to find the body of the church organist as well!

Of the three, Speaking From Among the Bones was my favorite. It had great pacing, an engaging mystery, and fascinating character development. Bradley also used this book to really utilize characterization and plot points from previous books. This is also where you begin to feel that you are reading towards something - that something is decidedly the latest book The Death In Their Vaulted Arches. So now I want to discuss what I like about this series as a whole with regards to these three.

Flavia serves as our way into both the de Luce family and Bishop's Lacey. We meet all of the other characters through her 11 year old eyes. Much to Mr. Bradley's credit, the reader truly believes that this girl is capable of solving mysteries and expertly combining chemicals. But Flavia's (mis)adventures really serve a way for us to get to know the griefs and joys of the people she meets. We encounter many characters, including Flavia's father and Dogger, a member of the household staff, who are still reeling from the effects of World War II. Because Flavia is still a child, she goes mostly unnoticed and is privy to some very private moments of grief among her own family and among her neighbors and friends who have lost loved ones. These moments help Flavia to grow up but they also give us an intense and very well-crafted look into the ways that people deal with the horror of war and the pain of loss.

The Flavia de Luce stories are a perfect mix of several genres. While these books are categorized as mysteries, they are so much more than that. Readers get to experience the quaint village of Bishop's Lacey, where we meet quirky but painfully realistic characters. Mr. Bradley also shows us the visible and more insidious effects of a terrible war. At its very heart, we become a part of the de Luce family - the sibling squabbles, the family secrets, and the attempts of both adults and children to love each other in the best ways that they can.This is a series that no one should miss.

Review: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

Flavia de Luce #2

By Alan Bradley

Delacorte Press 2010

358 pages

From the library

Intrepid young scientist and sleuth Flavia de Luce is at it again in the second mystery from Alan Bradley. A traveling puppet show comes into town and the puppeteer and his assistant are coerced into performing while their truck is being repaired. Flavia befriends Nialla, the assistant, and learns that things are not as rosy between Nialla and Rupert as they might appear onstage. When Rupert is murdered, Flavia puts her powers of intuition, science, and pure pluckiness to work and realizes that there are many suspects in her tiny town and that this mysterious death may be tied to another local murder from long ago.

Flavia is a very polarizing character. She is a precocious 11 year old chemistry whiz with a wicked sense of humor who is loved by many and despised by some. At times, she does seem to understand much more than she should for her age, both about human nature and about science. While Flavia is incredibly bright and can be incredibly impetuous at times, she realizes both the positives and negatives of her age. "Eleven year-olds are supposed to be unreliable. We're past the age of being poppets: the age where people bend over and poke us in the tum with their fingers and make idiotic noises that sound like "boof-boof" -- just the thoughts of which is enough to make me bring up my Bovril. And yet we're still not at the age where anyone ever mistakes us for a grown-up. The fact is, we're invisible -- except when we choose not to be." 

While I found the mystery in this book compelling, it has a very slow buildup. The murder in question doesn't happen until halfway through the book and I knew who was in trouble long before the crime was committed. I wasn't miserable waiting for the plot to build up to the murder - Flavia is always entertaining, whether she is gallivanting around town on her bike Gladys or plotting against her insufferable older sisters.  Bradley excels at creating the quintessential small British town with a zany and lovable cast of characters. It's interesting to see how he builds the characters in each story, so you meet a few more residents of Bishop's Lacey in each book. 

While this is a sequel, it shouldn't stop you from jumping into this book. I don't think you will be confused if you haven't read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. But really, why should you miss any of Flavia's adventures? She is an unforgettable character and Alan Bradley is a great writer. I look forward to seeing what mischief Flavia finds next in A Red Herring Without Mustard.