Fun with Flavia

"It had been at Aunt Felicity's insistence that I was packed up like a bundle of old rags and tossed onto a ship to Canada."

Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce has been banished from her ancestral home in England and sent away to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada, the same boarding school that her mother once attended. On her first night there, she discovers a charred and mummified corpse stuffed up her bedroom chimney. It's her seventh dead body ... and yet another mystery for her to solve.

I really enjoyed Alan Bradley's latest Flavia de Luce mystery, As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust. Far from home, Flavia is forced to grow up a bit in this book, but that doesn't detract from her charm. She's still precocious, and intrepid, obsessed with poisons and all things chemical, and still able to lie without batting an eye. And while I missed Buckshaw, especially Dogger, I liked the boarding school setting in this book. Flavia's interactions with the other girls and teachers made me laugh. And the mystery kept me guessing, too. All in all, this was a fun book; I smiled all the way through it. Yay for Flavia de Luce.

Happy Reading!

A Bookish Gem...

Title: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
First Line: It was as black in the closet as old blood.
Favorite Character: Flavia de Luce, an eleven-year-old chemistry genius who has a "passion for poisons", and a penchant for exacting revenge on her two older sisters whenever they cross her. She has a quick temper, a bright mind, and an unexpected knack for solving mysteries.

My Thoughts:I don't know how I missed this gem by Alan Bradley when it was first published back in 2009, but I won't ever miss any of his Flavia de Luce novels again. I loved this book! It's so well-written. And articulate and funny Flavia is the perfect narrator. At one point she describes herself this way:  "I felt my inner cauldron beginning to boil: that bubbling pot of occult brew that could so quickly transform Flavia the Invisible into Flavia the Holy Terror." How can you resist a character like this?

Bradley's skill as a writer, his descriptive prowess, and his style and use of imagery really elevates this novel above the ordinary. I liked his mystery, too. It involves Flavia's father, two rare stamps that have gone missing, and a murdered man found in the de Luce's garden. This book was so much fun to read. I can't wait to read the rest of the Flavia de Luce mysteries!

One of Flavia's "Rules of Life": When you want something, bite your tongue.