C. Alan Bradley (1938–2026)

I saw this coming a few books back but was delighted to read Mr. Bradley’s handling of the situation. Flavia is maturing and being tortured by a younger cousin (who certainly smacks of a younger Flavia) as she winds her way through managing her late father’s estate while never taking her eye off the local scene for murder and whatever.

In all of Bradley’s books there are snippets of wit and wisdom: “when you know a person’s name, you have very great power over them…” “The show more making of a pot of tea is a blessing.” Flavia maintains a smile embracing cheap isolation from the world knowing that “the best smile is for oneself”. But not all is a smile, a witticism, there are deeper social and moral issues at hand and once again Flavia is going to take another large step toward adulthood.

This installment was a long time coming but I am so grateful that it has arrived. It is bright, cheeky, intelligent and well written. Thanks to Bantam Books and NetGalley for a copy. show less

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious moon-faced cousin Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. Undine’s main talent, aside from cultivating disgusting habits, seems to be raising Flavia’s hackles, although in her best moments she shows potential for trespassing, trickery, and other assorted mayhem.

When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of show more poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family’s longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn’t it she who’d picked the mushrooms, cooked the omelet, and served it to Greyleigh moments before his death? “I have to admit,” says Flavia, an expert in the chemical nature of poisons, “that I’d been praying to God for a jolly good old-fashioned mushroom poisoning. Not that I wanted anyone to die, but why give a girl a gift such as mine without giving her the opportunity to use it?”

But Flavia knows the beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the obnoxious Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet’s good name. Little does she know that following the case’s twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery—one with the power to upend her entire life.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Re-entering the fantasy world that is Buckshaw under the sole, legal rule of Flavia de Luce was...shocking, really. I know it's been four, maybe five years since I read the last one, but howinahell did I suspend disbelief for nine, or was it ten?, books with a kid behaving like an adult? And getting away with it?! No one, not one soul, seems to think "someone ought to be responsible for this kid's social development" and that makes me really unhappy.

So the hill of disbelief needed reclimbing. It was a trudge.

I was, about a third of the way in, ready to give up and Pearl-Rule this bad boy. I didn't because my memories of pleasures past were strong. Sort of literary ex-sex. I'd mostly forgotten the dramatis personae, so it took a while to get my eye back in on Undine...insufferable brat...Dogger, Mrs. Mullet, and Daffy, the last of Flavia's siblings still at Buckshaw.

The characters urging Flavia to get bratty, tantrum-prone Undine some kind of counseling are feeding into the idea that Flavia is, somehow or other, functionally an adult. As a smart kid myself...I read the Encyclopedia Brittanica for fun between the ages of nine and twelve...I'm here to say Flavia's smarts are believable but her emotional maturity, as far as it goes, is not. Her quite justified resentment of her older sisters, unengaged in her development apart from the expected sibling ugliness, shows the limitations of a fantasy of liberated childhood. It makes Flavia come across as far too adult for her not to pursue the earlier nastiness against now-married Feely and soon-to-depart Daffy, university bound bookworm and seemingly uninterested last sister.

So...Undine. She's a cousin, also orphaned, whose antics affect Flavia as her own antics affected Feely and Daffy in earlier books. She's the embodiment of the Parents' Curse: "May you have a child exactly like you, only moreso." Undine makes her value to Flavia obvious by getting and giving to her a very relevant clue to solving the puzzle set in this book. Mrs. Mullet...the suspect needing Flavia's help this time...that one's a very, very deep pool, and much more than has met the eye heretofore. But let's go outside the fantasy realm for a moment, what kind of awful effects does leaving what I'd honestly describe as a badly damaged by neglect kid in charge of one of the same create? Undine (every time I type her name I get frissons of Undine Spragg, from Wharton's The Custom of the Country and her ghastly, entitled 'tude that ends so very badly) needs, much like Flavia did, custodianship, not the gentle and lovely guidance (as opposed to rules and standards) of servants like Dogger and Mrs. Mullet. Really, though, that's the practical adult speaking, not the series reader.

Observant souls, all three of y'all, will note I said "did" above. That's due to my response to the Big Honkin' Twist near the end. No, I won't spoil it, but suffice it to say this really changes everything. I honestly had to talk myself down off the Pearl-Rule ledge again when I got there.

So how came I to give the book four whole stars? It sounds like I'm ready to rip it a new one, doesn't it? I might have. It was a close thing a couple times. I've said in lots of different places that I don't do a lot of re-reading. I have so many books that I will die with a lot unread. This was not always the case. When I was being "raised" by a neglectful, when she wasn't abusive mother, I read and re-read uncounted times Dodie Smith's 1956 novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Not the Disney-fied version, I hasten to add. That bowdlerized abomination is an affront to the rescue fantasy so brilliantly penned by the delightful Smith. This series is a forceful evocation of my own tween years, managing a world I wasn't prepared for without support and while dealing with absent or actively unhelpful siblings. I'm sucked in by this extraordinarily gifted kid's clever management of her world, doing so well that no one thinks a thing of enabling it further. I wasn't so good at it, this being reality...but it's a fun way to revise my life in my entertainment.

Don't start with this one, but if you left the series and forgot why you started it, jump in. You really didn't miss much in between, and this one's fun...from the proper series-reader perspective. Take off the rational grown-up hat. show less

ermine absolutamente enamorada de Flavia, una niña inteligente, perspicaz, una friki de la química, única como ella sola, tan inglesa y solitaria y aunque es cariñosa, no tiene mas remedio que ser o aparentar ser una verdadera arpía con sus hermanas y fría con su padre.

Flavia encuentra a un hombre muerto en el jardín de su casa, un hombre que ella sabía había discutido con su padre una noche antes, así comienza la carrera de Flavia para investigar quien ha asesinado a este hombre y show more la razón aun y cuando sospecha de su padre, hace todo para ayudarlo o salvarlo de la cárcel.

Absolutamente maravilloso, me encanta como el autor nos pinta al Coronel de Luce, un típico inglés, frío y flemático, un padre exigente y duro, viudo desde hace 10 años y que queda a cargo de 3 niñas, las tres hijas no pueden ser mas diferentes, pero la lucha de poder entre ellas es divertidísima y Flavia que es la mas pequeña tiene que aprender no solo a defenderse si no a tener mucha imaginación para vengarse de ellas.

La historia de la investigación del asesinato es genial y es invevitable decir lo bien documentado que esta el autor, pero me parece que Flavia es el corazón de este libro.

Absolutamente recomendable, para cualquier tipo lector, creo que todos jovenes, niños, amantes de la novela, del thriller, de lo policiaco, a quien le gusta la aventura amaran este libro show less

Oh, how I adore this series. It's full of small village charm, with a dash of poison and murder--and all through the eyes of a precocious 11-year-old. It says a great deal about Flavia's depth of personality that she has such a fixation on death and the biology of toxins, yet at her age she still fervently believes in Father Christmas. Her plans to snare Santa are complicated by the arrival of movie stars with their entourage, as they have rented the estate for some holiday filming.

In other show more mystery books, it would be quite irksome that no one dies until 1/3 of the way through. Here, every character is so enjoyable and fascinating, that there's no rush for the corpse. It will arrive in time. I have the utmost faith in Bradley's plots. The ending of this one had a particular smash-bang as well. Flavia's sisters are so wretched towards her, and there's some lovely development in their relationships.

These are the ultimate cozy mysteries. The book ends and I feel sad and empty. It's like eating potato chips, and you reach the bottom of the bag. Fortunately, I won an early release copy of the next book (yippee!) so I can read on. show less