The Grave's a Fine and Private Place: A Flavia de Luce Mystery Book 9 (Flavia de Luce, #9)

by Alan Bradley

Sunny skies, sleep water...and a sinister corpse

Flavia is enjoying the summer, spending her days punting along the river with her reluctant family. Languishing in boredom, she drags a slack hand in the water, and catches her fingers in the open mouth of a drowned corpse.

Brought to shore, the dead man is found to be dressed in blue silk with ribbons at the knee, and wearing a single red ballet slipper.

Flavia needs to put her super-sleuthing skills to the test to investigate the murder of three gossips in the local church, and to keep her sisters out of danger. But what could possibly connect the son of an executed killer, a far too canny police constable, a travelling circus, and the publican's mysteriously talented wife?

Praise for the historical Flavia de Luce mysteries:

'The Flavia de Luce novels are now a cult favourite' Mail on Sunday

'A cross between Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle and the Addams family...delightfully entertaining' Guardian

Fans of M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin, Frances Brody and Alexander McCall Smith will enjoy the Flavia de Luce mysteries:

1. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
2. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
3. A Red Herring Without Mustard
4. I Am Half Sick of Shadows
5. Speaking From Among the Bones
6. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
7. As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust
8. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
9. The Grave's a Fine and Private Place

If you're looking for a cosy crime series to keep you hooked then look no further than the Flavia de Luce mysteries.

* Each Flavia de Luce mystery can be read as a standalone or in series order *

• ISBN10: 1409172880
• ISBN13: 9781409172888
• Publish Date: 8 February 2018 (first published 30 January 2018)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 5 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Orion Publishing Co
• Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Grave's a Fine and Private Place is the 9th Flavia de Luce novel by Alan Bradley. I don't think that Flavia is really an acquired taste, though I seem to be more delighted by each addition to the series. Flavia is wickedly wryly funny (and clever) and Bradley is a gifted author. She and her dogsbody/batman, appropriately named Dogger are a force to be reckoned with and outmaneuver, outflank and outwit all comers.

I wouldn't recommend this book as a standalone. I do think that all the necessary background info is provided for doing so, but there are a number of spoilers/plot twists from previous entries which are referred to in this book. Much more fun to find a rainy fall weekend and binge read the whole series.

For readers who are unfamiliar with Flavia, she's not your average adolescent. She's self contained and prodigiously interested in chemistry and crime. Dogger does the heavy lifting.

I don't often laugh out loud at books, but I have done so with every single one of the Flavia books.

I have recommended these books to my circle of crime-reading friends and the verdicts seem to be almost evenly split between 'wonderful' and 'no, thanks'. Definitely worth a try if you appreciate very well crafted mysteries with a touch of the absurd and/or slightly gallows humor.

Info:
Release date: 30 Jan 2018.
384 pages, available in hardback, paperback, audio and ebook formats.

Five stars in my appreciative estimation. Long may she reign!

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Beth C.]

I've been a HUGE Flavia fan since book one - even though I rarely read mysteries. But there is just something about this young lady, whose fascination with poisons and dead bodies tends to get her in more scrapes than one might expect of a girl with her upbringing.

I was so excited for this book, and it did *not* let me down. In fact, to me this is one of the best Flavia books yet. I love that we get to know the stalwart Dogger better, and that Flavia - while growing up - is still her irrepressible self.

And while I will give no spoilers, I will say that this ending - for me - is one of those rare things where it is simply perfect. Most, I find, are good or decent or fit the story - but few are *perfect* for how the story feels to me. In the end, I closed this book with a huge smile and a warm feeling, like I had just spent time over a cuppa with a very close friend. Not a bad way to spend some time.