I have to confess, I’m a casual reader of mysteries at best. I do enjoy the genre, when I find a good mystery that I love. But sometimes I just forget to read them. When I was browsing my library the other day (and in my household, that’s only a day that ends in y), there was a display featuring Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce novels. I thought, “Why not?” So I decided that my Fourth of July vacation week would be a perfect time […]
Not as game-changing as I thought and hoped it would be, but still fun.
First, a caveat: I was expecting a lot more from this book than it gave me, and those expectations were not unreasonable. In fact, they are a direct consequence of the way Mr. Bradley structured not only this book, but the last book in the series. I was expecting a sort of series reboot: Flavia at boarding school with a new cast of supporting characters, learning to be a spy and such. Or at the very least, that there should be real reason why he […]
Flavia de Luce is all growed up. Kinda.
Flavia de Luce, we meet again. I’ve been nuts about the magnificently precocious 12 year old amateur sleuth ever since the opening pages of the first book, when she looked at the cook employed by her father at their huge country house and thought “will no-one rid us of this turbulent pastry chef?” She is an absolute delight of a character, though the series has shown signs of stalling, as Flavia continues to be the same age and remain in the same location, edging ever […]
What happened to Harriet De Luce?
Wow, that wasn’t what I was expecting AT ALL. In a good way. For me, this is the best of the series. So, fair warning, this review will be chock-a-block full of spoilers, so stay away, far far away if you don’t want to get spoiled all to hell. Usually, I try not to put spoilers (at least, ones involving twists and resolutions of the plot) in my reviews, but in this case, it’s impossible to say what I want to say without talking about […]