Flavia de Luce Novels

One of the happiest things in life is finding a new author who's writing you love . . . and then finding out that said author was written 8 books thereby providing you with weeks of enjoyment as you pour through them. I read somewhere prior to leaving for Amsterdam about a book that sounded interesting . . . The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. This is the first mystery in a series by Canadian Alan Bradley and was published in 2009. . . . meaning I was a tad late to the party.

The Flavia de Luce books are considered cozy mysteries. But I suspectfew fans read them solely for the mysteries they contain. More likey they read them to get lost in Flavia's world. Flavia de Luce is a mere eleven year old girl growing up in the rural English countryside in the year 1951. She lives with her family in their dilapidated family estate of Buckshaw. While the de Luce family name is a revered one in England, their financial situation is reduced and the estate is going to ruin. Flavia's quirky family includes her two elder sisters Ophelia and Daphne, neither of whom she gets along with, and her very remote, very stiff-upper-lip father. Her mother, Harriet, is a hazy figure neither Flavia nor the reader get to meet, having disappeared in a tragic Himalayan climbing expedition while Flavia was just a toddler.

Being largely left to her own devices, Flavia discovers a chemistry lab in one of Buckshaw's numerous closed-up wings and commandeers it as her own. Her self-taught adventures in chemistry are a large part of her charm and humor and oftentimes lead her down paths she probably ought not go down. Each character - her sisters, her father, the two household servants who are really more like family, the townsfolk who populate the novels - is endowed with such endearing, funny, and quirky traits that it is nearly impossible not to fall in love with them.

Flavia is one of the most interesting characters I've found in fiction in some time.While Flavia exhibits many characteristics common to 11 year olds she also has some amazingly unique traits - she is a whiz at chemistry and adores her favourite chemical passion - poison.

Bradley had never set foot in England before he won his first mystery prize, but tales heard at the knee of his adventurous grandmother gave him his eye for the English countryside circa the 1950s. She must have had some amazing tales to tell for he writes about the time and place as if he had inhabited it personally.

If you, like me, am late to the Flavia de Luce 'party' here is the list of books int eh series - do read them in order though as there is a central plot arc that develops a wee bit more with each book.

1. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (2009)
2. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (2010)
3. A Red Herring Without Mustard (2011)
4. I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (2011)
5. Speaking from Among the Bones (2013)
6. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (2014)

Comments

[michele Harrison]

I read the first four books and then somehow lost track of the series so thanks very much for posting this! Enjoy your weekend and I hope you have some time to relax and read.

[JDeQ]

Things dragged a bit for me in the middle books but the last one was amazing!