NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “The world’s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth” (The Seattle Times), Flavia de Luce, returns in a twisty mystery novel from award-winning author Alan Bradley.
In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days. For a needed escape, Dogger, the loyal family servant, suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavia’s grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body. If anything could take Flavia’s mind off sorrow, it is solving a murder—although one that may lead the young sleuth to an early grave.
Praise for The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place
“Flavia [is] irrepressible, precocious and indefatigable. . . . A whole new chapter of Flavia’s life opens as she approaches adolescence. Will she become the Madame Curie of crime?”—Bookreporter
“Outstanding . . . As usual, Bradley makes his improbable series conceit work and relieves the plot’s inherent darkness with clever humor.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“There’s only one Flavia. . . . Series fans will anticipate the details of this investigation, along with one last taste of Flavia’s unorthodox family life.”—Library Journal (starred review)
“Bradley’s unquenchable heroine brings ‘the most complicated case I had ever come across’ to a highly satisfying conclusion, with the promise of still brighter days ahead.”—Kirkus Reviews
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.
