Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

The one big problem I had with this novel is that I read it way too fast! I’ve grown to love Flavia de Luce and I look forward to reading each new release, but it goes way too quickly. It’s a good problem to have. This is one of the few series I’ve read where the books just keep getting better.

Flavia is back from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada, but the halls of her beloved Buckshaw are quieter than normal. Her father is sick with pneumonia in the hospital. Bradley carries the reader effortlessly into Bishop’s Lacey in the 1950s. Once again, Flavia discovers a dead body and we’re off!

As is always true for me with these books, the murder mystery is secondary to the characters. Each new book adds layer upon layer to show more Flavia and her relationships with her family and friends. She is growing into a brilliantly astute woman, but she still has the self-involved innocence of a child in some areas of life. .

Dogger, Buckshaw’s caretaker, remains my favorite character. His steadfast devotion to Flavia’s father and his quiet guidance never disappoint.

BOTTOM LINE: I love this series now so much more than when I read the first books. The deeper you get into Flavia’s world, the more attached you are to her and the people of Bishop’s Lacey.

“Growing up is like that, I suppose: the strings fall away and you’re left standing on your own. It was sad in a way that is hard to describe.”

“One can learn from a glance at a person’s library, not what they are, but what they wish to be.”

"I do not encourage early-morning chirpiness, even in those whom I know and love. It is generally a sign of sloppy mind and is not to be encouraged." show less

Upon her return to England after being expelled from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada, Flavia de Luce finds that things have changed in Buckshaw, the family's deteriorating estate. Her father has been hospitalized with pneumonia and she can't find her best friend, Esmeralda. Her sisters Ophelia and Daphne are as remote as usual and her obnoxious orphaned cousin, Undine, is still there.

On the way to visit the vicar’s wife, Flavia agrees to deliver a note to a reclusive wood carver named Roger Sambridge. When he doesn't answer the door, Flavia just can't keep from investigating. She soon finds him hanging upside down, hooked on the back of the door in the shape of a human X. She decides to investigate the crime scene before show more calling Inspector Hewitt and discovers a set of Oliver Inchbold’s Crispian Crumpet children’s books, which strikes her as odd.

I think Flavia is one of those characters that readers either love and can't stand. She's extremely precocious, amusing, irritating and a budding twelve-year-old chemist and occasional detective. The mystery is more the center of the story here than in some of the previous books in the series and many of my favorite characters were missing this time around. This wasn't my favorite book in the series but Jayne Entwistle is fantastic at bringing the story to life. She is the perfect voice of Flavia without overwhelming the story at all. I can't wait to see what happens to Flavia in the next book. show less

This is the 8 book in the Flavia deLuce series, and I have been along for Flavia's journey since the beginning. This is a delightful series, and it never fails to succeed in acting as a bridge or a stopping off point after reading or listening to an intense book. True comfort reading. In this book Flavia is 12 years old and has recently returned to Buckshaw from school in Canada. She comes home to find that her beloved father has been taken ill with pneumonia and is in hospital. Flavia is heartbroken not to see him and because he is so gravely ill they have not allowed her to visit him either. While running an errand for her friend, the Vicar's wife, she discovers a dead body in a house outside the village, and for those who have read show more these books, this is not an unusual occurrence for Flavia. She uses this discovery to act as a distraction and to keep herself busy while she waits to be allowed to visit her father. Her investigation takes her into London and all around the surrounding countryside as she discovers an old, old story that illuminates and explains what has happened in her village. It was lots of fun to investigate with Flavia, but I was a bit disappointed with the ending. The solution to the crime was almost anti-climactic, and the loss that occurs right at the very end (off-camera so to speak) was abrupt. I will continue to read this series, but hope that endings in the other books are a little less abrupt and unsettling. show less

The Flavia de Luce series is one of my very favorites. I squealed with joy when I saw this new book pop up on NetGalley, and I literally danced when I was approved to get an early copy.

Did it live up to expectations? YES. Now, the difficulty of summing up why without delving into too many spoilers. In book #7, Flavia departed her beloved Buckshaw for a brief exile in far-distant Canada. That book was a major departure for the series, as the British countryside of her home is a vital character, but Bradley did well with this new adventure for Flavia. Even so, I was thrilled for her to be back in Britain with her bicycle Gladys and the full cast of her eccentric family.

However, things are not well. Father is ill and in hospital. Her show more sisters are even colder than usual. Her dear hen is not where she should be. Flavia is more mature from her months away, and has a new perspective on her home, and feels utterly out of sorts. Therefore, it's a great comfort and joy when she finds a local woodcarver dead--a corpse is just what she needs! The mystery plays out in true Flavia fashion as she sets on on Gladys, questions suspects, and engages in chemistry. As part of her growing-up, she even takes some side trips to London to follow up on leads. And the ending... oh, the ending.

Thrice the Brinded Cat is out on September 20th. I will be preordering a hard copy for my collection and keeping a wary eye out for any news on when book 9 will be released. The only terrible thing about getting to read the book early is that I know there is a long, dreadful wait until I can read the next one. show less

The Flavia books keep getting better.
I started to figure out a couple of the plot twists well before they were explained, and the mystery itself was not so compelling as the interactions were. It's interesting to analyze Flavia's world: she's on the brink of growing up, and this constantly surprises her. She's starting to understand why you have to do small talk, why it helps to show sympathy to people, and how to be self-controlled. She's gained a few allies in the adult world around her, and anytime she manages to be a team player with them instead of just the kid in the room, you can feel the victory dance going on in her mind.

At the same time, she's still the kid who invests her bicycle with a name (Gladys), a personality, and show more feelings. She's still a loner within her family. She's in an in-between state, but on the learning curve to adulthood, she's starting to accelerate. It's a path that is written most effectively and poignantly.

So, quite a good read because of the deft portrayal of a...13-year-old or thereabouts, can't remember for sure?
But oh, that ending. Sad cliffhanger. I was seized with forebodings a few pages from the end, and they proved true. show less

Upon her return home, Flavia de Luce discovers her father is hospitalized with influenza which has turned into pneumonia. Visiting hours have passed for the day, but she's promised she can go the next day during the afternoon visiting hours. To occupy her time, she calls on the vicar's wife Cynthia Richardson who asks her to deliver a note to a woodcarver in a nearby hamlet. She rides Gladys to his home where she discovers his corpse hanging on the back of his bedroom door. Using her observation and chemist skills, she begins to unravel the case. The hospital discouraged visitors that day because her father needed rest so that gives her more time to investigate. Over the next few days, she makes a couple of trips to London to find show more information concerning the death of an author whose book she discovers at the scene of the crime with a local girl's name in it. Flavia's adventures always entertain, and Jayne Entwistle does an outstanding job narrating this series. show less

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Hailed as “a combination of Eloise and Sherlock Holmes” by The Boston Globe, Flavia de Luce returns in a much anticipated new Christmas mystery from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley.

In spite of being ejected from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is excited to be sailing home to England. But instead of a joyous homecoming, she is greeted on the docks with unfortunate news: Her father has fallen ill, and a hospital visit will have to wait while he rests. But with Flavia’s blasted sisters and insufferable cousin underfoot, Buckshaw now seems both too empty—and not empty enough. Only too eager to run an errand for the show more vicar’s wife, Flavia hops on her trusty bicycle, Gladys, to deliver a message to a reclusive wood-carver. Finding the front door ajar, Flavia enters and stumbles upon the poor man’s body hanging upside down on the back of his bedroom door. The only living creature in the house is a feline that shows little interest in the disturbing scene. Curiosity may not kill this cat, but Flavia is energized at the prospect of a new investigation. It’s amazing what the discovery of a corpse can do for one’s spirits. But what awaits Flavia will shake her to the very core.

My Review: What?! ::incoherent word salad::
EDITED AFTER SLEEPING OFF INDIGNANT OUTRAGE
Yes, that's right, this book ended on a note that raised within me the Category 5 hurricane of outrage and indignation. I won't discuss what it was because it would make me utterly completely furious to know this turn of events before I got there and would, indeed, sour me on the read altogether.

Because it's a very sour thing that happens.

As is his habit, Author Bradley (that dreadful gong farmer {see text for this *hilarious* new old insult} whose misdeeds I'm not quickly going to forgive) starts with Flavia making wonderfully trenchant observations:

There are those persons, I suppose, who would criticize me for loving a chicken to distraction, but to them I can only say "Boo and sucks!" The love between animal and human is one that never fails, as it does so often among our own sorry tribe.

Thus Flavia on the first problem she encounters when returned from Canada to the loving embrace of her homeland and family. The combination of childish taunt with accurate character assessment of our species is the trademark thing this series offers. It's clearly a taste, and not everyone's favorite. I confess to needing a long break after [book:As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust|21874813], a most unsatisfactory entry into the series that left me disgruntled if not outright annoyed. I didn't like the silliness of the Nide and its cover story. But there one is, a long-running series must make an effort to freshen itself up if not reinvent itself or the dreaded series sag will set in.

Flavia's current case, which she must solve before the winter of 1951 ends (references are made to "His Majesty" and to Christmas, so it's before 6 February 1952 when George VI died), is the death of a strange duck named Sambridge. Flavia discovers his body in a completely unexpected way, exactly as one would expect. Being a sleuth to her core she uses her only chance to view the crime scene to observe many details but seems not to have a lot of joy from them. Her strangest find is a book that belonged or belongs to a girl with whom she's acquainted, one Carla Sherrinford-Cameron, whose ghastly pretentious artsy-fartsyness causes Flavia actual pain:

Carla Sherrinford-Cameron, her hands clasped together at her waist like lobster's claws, was singing "The Lass with the Delicate Air," and I found myself wishing that I had thought to bring a firearm with me—although whether to put Carla out of her misery or to do away with myself, I had not quite yet decided.

(That's a song I have to admit made me wince even when Julie Andrews emitted it.) But what was the dreadful Carla's book doing at the scene of old Mr. Sambridge's murder? Why was he murdered? What significance does his quite strange habit of carving weird creatures for churches have?

All in good time. This is Author Bradley's show so we'll let him elucidate his purposes in his own way and at his own pace. The usual suspects are deployed, Inspector and Mrs. Hewitt, Cynthia the vicar's wife, sisters Feely and Daffy, Dogger...all present and accounted for. New series regular, it would seem, is Mrs. Mildred Bannerman late of the Nide. Her assistance to Flavia in this case is invaluable. Why is she taking such an interest in Flavia? Is there a deeper purpose to this lady's presence in England? And what goddess placed a helper whose connections are *the*exact*ones*needed* in Flavia's pursuit of a killer?

I will say I found the resolution to the murder far-fetched and impractical, and a bit less than believable even within the heightened reality I've come to expect from the series. But the major shocker is not even to be hinted at. It is a shocker. But you'll see, series readers. Those joining the party just now: Don't start here. Nothing will make sense, none of the pleasures will please, which is a waste and a shame. Read the books in order for them to be at all worth your eyeblinks. show less