strange and random happenstance

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: September 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Flavia is doing what she does best, rattling around Buckshaw and Bishop's Lacey on her trusty steed Gladys looking for anything she can investigate. Who knows, with any luck there might be a murder. Sometimes though it's dangerous to get what you wish for. Major Greyleigh is a retired civil servant who is a bit of a recluse. Flavia doesn't know that her beloved housekeeper, Mrs. Mullet, has been checking up on the Major and making sure he's well fed. Which is how Mrs. Mullet ends up the prime suspect in his apparent murder. His final meal consisted of some rather poisonous mushrooms, a type of poisoning Flavia has longed to investigate for years. Flavia knows that there's no way Mrs. Mullet would kill a man on purpose, which means it's time to investigate. Which, unfortunately, is exactly what her annoying cousin Undine wants to help Flavia with. Thinking she's ditched the nefarious nuisance Flavia breaks into the Major's house and makes quite a few startling discoveries. The first is that while yes, he was a civil servant, that's an umbrella term that can cover a multitude of sins, because he was actually a hangman. A hangman that kept little trophies of all his victims. Fetishes of the departed. Talk about squick. Although Undine, who Flavia didn't lose, thinks they're rather fascinating. Though Flavia, having far more experience than the ubiquitous Undine, finds this to be only one line of questioning. Undine doesn't understand that after years of experience Flavia knows not to put all of her eggs in one basket. Especially once Mrs. Mullett is cleared Flavia has the distinct feeling that the Major and his death is being hushed up from on high. Someone wants all of this to go away, which is what makes Flavia even more interested. Why else would the police cede the case to the military? There are still Americans stationed at the local air base, Leathcote, and Flavia plies what wiles she has to get a little help in sneaking onto the base. What she finds there changes everything. Her life is upended, her future looks different, and if there's one thing she realizes it's that maybe it's time to grow up. Maybe it's time to reconsider her priorities and forge her own path. Though obviously if that path is strewn with dead bodies that would be brilliant.

I have been a fan of Flavia de Luce since day one. Just look to my signed first edition for my bona fides. Which means that I have strong opinions on this series. Of course you're wondering, when haven't I had strong opinions, which is valid, but this is a series with a cast of characters I've been living with for fifteen years, which if I'm right on the aging, means I've been reading these books for longer than Flavia's been alive... So when something doesn't sit right with me I obsess over it. And while I've had smaller issues crop up over the years with regard to this series, like why send Flavia to Canada at all if she'd return so quickly or what happened to her tutor or why is Undine so insufferable, there are two that have really stuck in my craw. The first is why did the series end after the tenth volume? Yes, ten is a nice number to end on and a wedding is always a nice stopping point, but with Flavia and Dogger setting up their own detective agency at the end of The Grave's a Fine and Private Place to have it really go nowhere with no resolution in The Golden Tresses of the Dead made for a lackluster finish. It just seemed like the series called time and this was what we were left with, an unplanned ending. But more importantly the way Flavia's father, Colonel Haviland de Luce, died of pneumonia offstage in Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd, has always pissed me off. It just didn't work on any level. I mean, why even kill him? If it was to provide an emotional punch or to set Flavia adrift, well, I'm sorry, but Dogger was more a dad to her than the Colonel ever was. He was always too busy with his stamps and his possibly performative mourning to even bother raising his children. And you might say I'm being harsh on the man, but, given what I now know, maybe I'm not being harsh enough. So to recap, my issues are why end on a book that didn't feel like the end and why kill of Colonel de Luce. This book so wonderfully addresses these issues just by its existence. Because here it is, an eleventh book with a twelfth on the way and this FEELS like the finale Flavia deserves. She breaks with the secretive spycraft of the past and decides to embrace what the future has to offer. And as for those secrets? Whoa boy, spoiler alert, her father isn't dead. I KNEW that pneumonia seemed overly convenient! And it was! A ruse to put him into hiding which makes me hate him more for putting his family through that grief but also, I feel redeemed for flagging his death as being too convenient. I was right! And yes, you might think that I get great joy over shouting this from the rooftops. But it's not because I'm right it's because I knew these characters and this world so well that I could sense a disturbance in the force. A disturbance that has since been fixed and it has put my heart at ease. I feel whole. I don't point to this series and say, I love it but... I can now point to this series and simply say I love it. Because I do. Now unreservedly. Murdered hangman and all.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Bishop's Lacey, Colonel De Luce, Dogger, Flavia De Luce, Gladys, Hangman, Mrs. Mullet, Murder Most Foul, Mushrooms, Poisoning, Spycraft, Undine De Luce, What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust by Alan Bradley
Published by: Bantam
Publication Date: September 3rd, 2024
Format: Hardcover, 320 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Flavia is doing what she does best, rattling around Buckshaw and Bishop's Lacey on her trusty steed Gladys looking for anything she can investigate. Who knows, with any luck there might be a murder. Sometimes though it's dangerous to get what you wish for. Major Greyleigh is a retired civil servant who is a bit of a recluse. Flavia doesn't know that her beloved housekeeper, Mrs. Mullet, has been checking up on the Major and making sure he's well fed. Which is how Mrs. Mullet ends up the prime suspect in his apparent murder. His final meal consisted of some rather poisonous mushrooms, a type of poisoning Flavia has longed to investigate for years. Flavia knows that there's no way Mrs. Mullet would kill a man on purpose, which means it's time to investigate. Which, unfortunately, is exactly what her annoying cousin Undine wants to help Flavia with. Thinking she's ditched the nefarious nuisance Flavia breaks into the Major's house and makes quite a few startling discoveries. The first is that while yes, he was a civil servant, that's an umbrella term that can cover a multitude of sins, because he was actually a hangman. A hangman that kept little trophies of all his victims. Fetishes of the departed. Talk about squick. Although Undine, who Flavia didn't lose, thinks they're rather fascinating. Though Flavia, having far more experience than the ubiquitous Undine, finds this to be only one line of questioning. Undine doesn't understand that after years of experience Flavia knows not to put all of her eggs in one basket. Especially once Mrs. Mullett is cleared Flavia has the distinct feeling that the Major and his death is being hushed up from on high. Someone wants all of this to go away, which is what makes Flavia even more interested. Why else would the police cede the case to the military? There are still Americans stationed at the local air base, Leathcote, and Flavia plies what wiles she has to get a little help in sneaking onto the base. What she finds there changes everything. Her life is upended, her future looks different, and if there's one thing she realizes it's that maybe it's time to grow up. Maybe it's time to reconsider her priorities and forge her own path. Though obviously if that path is strewn with dead bodies that would be brilliant.

I have been a fan of Flavia de Luce since day one. Just look to my signed first edition for my bona fides. Which means that I have strong opinions on this series. Of course you're wondering, when haven't I had strong opinions, which is valid, but this is a series with a cast of characters I've been living with for fifteen years, which if I'm right on the aging, means I've been reading these books for longer than Flavia's been alive... So when something doesn't sit right with me I obsess over it. And while I've had smaller issues crop up over the years with regard to this series, like why send Flavia to Canada at all if she'd return so quickly or what happened to her tutor or why is Undine so insufferable, there are two that have really stuck in my craw. The first is why did the series end after the tenth volume? Yes, ten is a nice number to end on and a wedding is always a nice stopping point, but with Flavia and Dogger setting up their own detective agency at the end of The Grave's a Fine and Private Place to have it really go nowhere with no resolution in The Golden Tresses of the Dead made for a lackluster finish. It just seemed like the series called time and this was what we were left with, an unplanned ending. But more importantly the way Flavia's father, Colonel Haviland de Luce, died of pneumonia offstage in Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd, has always pissed me off. It just didn't work on any level. I mean, why even kill him? If it was to provide an emotional punch or to set Flavia adrift, well, I'm sorry, but Dogger was more a dad to her than the Colonel ever was. He was always too busy with his stamps and his possibly performative mourning to even bother raising his children. And you might say I'm being harsh on the man, but, given what I now know, maybe I'm not being harsh enough. So to recap, my issues are why end on a book that didn't feel like the end and why kill of Colonel de Luce. This book so wonderfully addresses these issues just by its existence. Because here it is, an eleventh book with a twelfth on the way and this FEELS like the finale Flavia deserves. She breaks with the secretive spycraft of the past and decides to embrace what the future has to offer. And as for those secrets? Whoa boy, spoiler alert, her father isn't dead. I KNEW that pneumonia seemed overly convenient! And it was! A ruse to put him into hiding which makes me hate him more for putting his family through that grief but also, I feel redeemed for flagging his death as being too convenient. I was right! And yes, you might think that I get great joy over shouting this from the rooftops. But it's not because I'm right it's because I knew these characters and this world so well that I could sense a disturbance in the force. A disturbance that has since been fixed and it has put my heart at ease. I feel whole. I don't point to this series and say, I love it but... I can now point to this series and simply say I love it. Because I do. Now unreservedly. Murdered hangman and all.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Bishop's Lacey, Colonel De Luce, Dogger, Flavia De Luce, Gladys, Hangman, Mrs. Mullet, Mushrooms, Mystery, Poisoning, Series, Spycraft, The Nide, Undine De Luce, What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust

The Golden Tresses of the Dead by Alan Bradley
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: January 22nd, 2019
Format: Hardcover, 352 Pages
Rating: ★★★
To Buy

One would think one's sister's marriage to a dashing German would be the most exciting thing in one's life. They'd be wrong. Because Flavia is far more excited about Arthur Dogger and Associates, the detective agency her and her father's valet have founded after all the cases Flavia has solved over the years. For appearances sake Dogger's name is on the letterhead, but Flavia can't deny that whenever she's come up against a problem in her cases Dogger has always been there to be a sounding board and to offer her keen insight. Yet little does Flavia realize that the wedding will turn out to be far more interesting than she could have expected, because it yields her several mysteries. First, the best man is missing, Reggie Mould is MIA, second there's a problem with the wedding cake. As in there's a finger in the wedding cake. A severed finger. This makes Flavia's day. Not only does it elicit a piercing scream from Feely, but how often are you going to find a severed finger in a wedding cake? What's more, it's not a finger from someone recently deceased, it's been embalmed. Who would want to take the finger of someone already dead? Also such a distinct finger. Because Flavia and Dogger soon discover it is the finger of recently deceased guitarist Mme. Adriana Castelnuovo. But even that's not the most interesting thing. They have gotten themselves a client, an Anastasia Prill. Anastasia is worried about some missing correspondence and needs the help of Arthur Dogger and Associates. But she soon ends up dead. What's more, there's a connection between the finger and Anastasia, the guitarist's son, Colin Collier, is also the nephew of Anastasia! This can't be a coincidence. But with two missionaries foisted on Flavia by the vicar's wife her time is becoming more and more precious. Yet soon she starts to suspect the missionaries. Is everything connected or is she totally on the wrong track?

The Golden Tresses of the Dead is the unexpected ending to the successful Flavia de Luce. Unexpected in that the previous volume, The Grave's a Fine and Private Place, seemed to finally be setting up the next big arc of the series, Flavia and Dogger opening up a detective agency. Instead we got this book, wherein they did start their detective agency, but everything else is a bit of a muddle. In fact, after the initial six book arc, ending with the revelations about Harriet and pheasants, the series hasn't really been on solid footing. Perhaps if Flavia's adventures had continued on at Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada, transforming the series into something new, it's longevity might have been assured. Instead the series has been slowing declining until it ended with this. And really, what was this? What was the ending? It was all muddled with no real resolution. Sure Flavia finally realized she could use Undine as a tool to help in their investigations, but there needed to be something more. And by something more I don't mean Dogger transforming into Sherlock Holmes. Dogger has always been the most relatable of characters. His backstory is tragic, and how Flavia was the only one able to help him with his PTSD gave them a special bond which has resulted in him becoming more of a father figure than her own father ever was. But here he seems too different. I know he needed to step up when Flavia's dad unexpectedly and unnecessarily died, but he's too competent, too all knowing. Looking at Dogger here compared to where he was just in the previous volume makes me feel like I've missed a step. Something has irreparably changed and not in a way that makes sense. But really, nothing in this book makes sense. Other than the fact Alan Bradley was obviously watching Lark Rise to Candleford while writing this book. I agree, that show is my one weakness too.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Dogger, Flavia De Luce, Lark Rise to Candleford, Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, Murder Most Foul, PTSD, Sherlock Holmes, The Golden Tresses of the Dead, The Grave's a Fine and Private Place

The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: January 30th, 2018
Format: Hardcover, 384 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

Only Flavia De Luce could catch a corpse in the palm of her hand while punting down a river. Of course she's on the river under duress. Dogger thought that Flavia and her sisters needed a distraction and decided a family trip was what was called for. But one can't help but feel the void, the person who isn't present, the girls' father who succumbed to pneumonia. He might not always have been the best or most present of fathers, but he was still their father and his memory is in every stone of Buckshaw, hence Dogger's enforced family vacation. Though there is one thing Flavia is looking forward to before her hand catches on the biggest distraction of all, a new case! The church they are passing in Volesthorpe, St. Mildred's-in-the-Marsh, is notorious for a recent multiple poisoning case when two years previously the vicar took matters into his own hands and did away with three of his busybody parishioners during communion. Murder! And with poison? It's almost as if the vicar killed these women just to make Flavia's day. But back to the corpse at hand. He's recently deceased and rather flamboyantly dressed in blue silk with ribbons at the knee and a single red ballet slipper. Flavia doesn't mind in the least when the local constabulary ask them to stay on as she discovered the corpse. It will give her plenty of time to investigate while Daphne sits in a room reading whatever book she's got to hand, and Ophelia bemoans her broken engagement. An engagement she broke it might be noted. Plus, Flavia has one up on the police, having taken a scarp of paper from the pocket of the corpse. The corpse is identified as Orlando Whitbread, an up-and-coming actor who happens to be the son of the "poisoning parson!" Constable Otter quickly rules Orlando's death as nothing more than a drowning, which Flavia doesn't buy. She thinks it was poison. And while she's in town, she thinks that perhaps Canon Whitebread didn't poison those three women... But digging into the past could put Flavia in danger.

The Grave is a Fine and Private Place is possibly the strongest of the later entries in this series. Ever since the initial arc was completed in The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches this series has been struggling to find it's identity. It's like Alan Bradley simultaneously wants to let Flavia grow up while also keeping her the Flavia we know and love and this has lead to mixed results. She was sent off to Canada to promptly return, her father was killed unnecessarily in some misguided attempt to make Flavia face her own problems versus nosing into other people's. It's like we're constantly moving one step forward and two steps back. And I get the reasoning, I do. Why change something when it isn't broken? But seeing as the whole series is supposed to only take place over about a year it's stretching credulity, like how many years was That '70s Show treading water pretending it was 1979 because they were not going to become That '80s Show? There's only one Christmas in a year afterall... And the less said about the actual That '80s Show the better. But Flavia can not stay in this enforced stasis forever. And there are two things that point to her actually growing. The first is she actually asks one of her siblings for help. Usually Daphne and Feely are just thorns in her side and to be avoided at all costs. But having them forced together for Dogger's vacation and then locked away in the hotel together has lead to some growth in their relationship. Daffy is the biggest bookworm on the planet and it's her literary knowledge that helps fill in the gaps for Flavia. Because there is a secret bestselling poet amongst the residents of Volesthrope and Daffy knows the significance of the work. Also Dogger and Flavia make a plan for their future. Their future being Arthur Dogger and Associates, a detective agency they will run together. This development makes sense. I mean, the two of them are dropped down in this town of poisoners, failed actors, circus performers, and over-the-top theatricals and they still get to the bottom of the case once again. So why not make a business out of it? Here's hoping that Flavia continues to keep moving forward.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Alan Bradley, Buckshaw, Christmas, Dogger, Flavia De Luce, Murder Most Foul, Poison, That '70s Show, That '80s Show, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, The Grave's a Fine and Private Place, Vacation

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
Published by: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: April 28th, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 374 Pages
Rating: ★★★★
To Buy

At Buckshaw, the ancestral home of the de Luce's, Flavia spends her time lovingly researching poisons and thinking up ways to exact revenge on her two older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne. What else can one do with a distant philatelist father interested only in his stamps, a dead mother, and sisters more concerned with reading and makeup then forging sisterly bonds? Add Mrs. Mullet, a cook who keeps plying them with her unwanted custard pies, and Dogger, the shell shocked comrade in arms who saved the Colonel in the war and is now the house's general dogsbody, and you can see why Flavia likes the uncomplicated world of chemistry to that of her fellow man. Lucky for Flavia the long dead Tarquin de Luce had a fervent love of chemistry equal to hers and she has inherited his envy inducing laboratory in Buckshaw, where even the china has a story to it. But their peace is soon to be disturbed, and not by the shrieks of Feely as her pearls are disintegrated by Flavia, or the muffled sounds of Flavia trying to extricate herself from the closest where her sisters imprisoned her. No. Murder is about to strike Buckshaw, foreshadowed by a dead jack snipe with a postage stamp skewered on it's beak. In the middle of the night Flavia is woken by her father arguing with a man in his study. She is taken back to bed by Dogger and she blasts music to lull herself to sleep rather than stewing in her habitual discontented and inquisitive mindset, but not before she heard her father say he had murdered a man by the name of Twining twenty years ago.

In the early dawn hours she awakens and goes out into the garden to find the intruder almost dead in the cucumber patch, his last words uttered into Flavia's face. The authorities are called and the investigation begins. But Flavia has her own investigations to conduct, starting at the public library and the death of this man named Twining. To her trusty steed, Gladys, her mother's old bicycle that Flavia uses to race off to the library. Which is closed... but soon a librarian approaches. The retired Miss Mountjoy, the bane of the village, has returned to help the current librarian. But her arrival is felicitous, she happens to be the niece of the murdered Twining, who was a teacher at Greyminster, the school Colonel de Luce attended. Twining committed suicide in front of all his students by jumping off the top of the school tower after a prize Penny Black stamp was taken from the headmaster and destroyed in front of his eyes. Flavia, intrigued, then goes to the local inn, assuming that the mystery man had to be staying there. In his room she finds the stamp that was supposedly destroyed... and it's twin! But back at Buckshaw it might be too late... her father has been arrested! Can Flavia save the day and her father before Inspector Hewitt and the other detectives? Or will she need saving herself?

When the dearly departed David Thompson from Murder by the Book casually mentioned a new and unique mystery that he thought I'd like I had little inkling that it would be the start of one of my favorite book series. Six years have passed since he sent me that email, five years since I first read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and David died. I can't believe it's been that long, but the sheer joy with which I've devoured the following six volumes attests to the fact that time hasn't stayed still. Flavia de Luce has worked her way into my heart. Part Addams Family, part Eloise, she's precocious but in a way that isn't cloying because it is balanced by her fondness for the macabre.  Bradley's world is populated with overtones of Christie and Du Maurier, which I'm sure he would gladly confirm. He has given us a wonderful mystery that reads like the best of the British whodunits but with a unique narrator in the guise of Flavia. Her family and their estate remind one of a dysfunctional Larkin family, they all have their little quirks and obsessions. Whether it's Flavia and her chemical compounds or Daffy and her books or the Colonel and his stamps, Bradley has created a myriad of interesting folk and their foibles who you can't help but love. But their bizarre personality quirks aren't just their for the sake of creating a semblance of depth in these people, they are integral to the plot and to the solving of the mystery. Only those with the experiences and backgrounds that the de Luce's possess would be able to see the greater picture.  

Though re-reading it all these years later with the sheer number of books I read per year details have become hazy and it was nice to refamiliarize myself with Flavia's origins. The truth is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is rough around the edges. Bradley has matured as a writer over the years to be more polished and to tell Flavia's story in a more assured and competent manner. With his development over the past few years he has definitely secured Flavia's place among the cannon of British whodunits, even if he's Canadian. But here this assurance is lacking and there are times when I was distinctly put out. Flavia waffles between being mature for her age and being very slow on the uptake. This results in her inner monologue occasionally becoming repetitive and simplistic in her deductions when the answer is actually right in front of her. While the mystery isn't really the driving force of Flavia's story, it is hard on the reader when they are so far ahead of Flavia that you start hoping that she'd get on with it already. But then again, this slow style is typical of the cozy genre and for a first outing, it's better than some writers achieve in their entire life. Yes, it might be a little clunky, yes, it's not perfect, but it does lay the groundwork magnificently for a solid series to come.

What really strikes me coming back to the beginning is just how British this series is. It's not just that this story could only happen to this family but also this could only happen in Britain. My love of Lark Rise to Candleford has made me more then a little obsessed with running a small rural post office in Victorian England, and the history of the postal service and the issuance of stamps and the Penny Black and it's connection to revolutionary forces and how it oddly ties into the climax of the movie The Young Victoria; well, the Anglophile in me was doing a happy dance. I find it interesting that in my original review, which I might have liberally borrowed from here, I found the reminisces of Colonel de Luce over long and unnecessary. But the truth is his unburdening in that little jail cell is the core of this book. Not only do we get this postal history but how much more British can a book get than long reminiscences of boys going to boarding school? The halcyon days of Greyminster and Colonel de Luce's mentor, Twining, are the stuff of Waugh and Powell, but here, here they take a deliciously dark twist. These settings, this time period, it just makes you long to dwell in the world, to walk the crumbling Buckshaw estate and wade out to the little folly. It is a world that is gone and we long to recapture, and here it is thanks to Bradley.    

And then there's Dogger. Dogger is a product of this time and this place and he is the heart of this book. Knowing, as I now know, Dogger's full past, seeing the clues, the little crumb trail that Bradley started here makes me realize what a long game he was playing. But it's not just Dogger, it's the way the de Luce's take care of him and even shelter him. They know Dogger is special and they treat him as such and let him do as he does in order to recover. Dogger is also the balancing force to Flavia. Flavia spends so much time talking about death and poisons and how she would eliminate her siblings, she's a bit out there. In fact, some people might be put off by her love of these deadly arts and that she solves the murder by rather gruesome knowledge. Inspector Hewitt doesn't even want her to finish her demonstration on her articulated skeleton Yorick because he's more than a little spooked. Therefore Flavia needs some way to humanize herself. While anyone who was a young girl would attest to the fact that young girls do spend much of their time planing the downfall of their enemies, it might not be so palatable for readers, and here is where Dogger comes in. Flavia helps Dogger however she can. She helps him through his attacks in whatever way he needs, whether it's a helping hand, a cup of tea, a lie down in his bed, or acting as if everything is OK, Flavia just knows what Dogger needs and does it. He humanizes her and she anchors him, they are the true dynamic duo of this book, sorry Gladys.

Posted by Miss Eliza at 12:00 AM 0 comments  

Labels: Agatha Christie, Alan Bradley, British, Buckshaw, Daphne Du Maurier, Dogger, English Cozy, Flavia De Luce, Lark Rise to Candleford, Murder by the Book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, The Young Victoria