The Flavia de Luce Novels by Alan Bradley

The Flavia de Luce Novels by Alan Bradley

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag
A Red Herring Without Mustard
I am Half-Sick of Shadows (release date November 2011)

The Flavia de Luce Novels are, by far, my favorite series of the past few years. The first was released in 2009 and I adore them. They are murder mysteries, set in the 1950s in the de Luce family estate, Buckshaw, found in the English countryside. Our dear Flavia is an 11-year-old girl, motherless due to a climbing accident that claimed her daring mother, and living with her closed-off father and two mean older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne. She inherited a relative’s chemistry lab in the house and when her sisters shut her in a closet or insist she was adopted, Flavia daydreams about the best way to poison (not kill!) her sisters, yet escape without getting caught – something an intellectual, yet
pre-teen girl would fantasize about.

In each of the novels, a murder occurs either at or near Buckshaw and our impetuous, precocious Flavia is determined to solve the mystery. She takes “no” as suggestion or challenge if it prevents her from following a lead. (“a hand-printed card (in front of the steps) read: ‘Tower Off Limits – Strictly Enforced.’ I was up them like a shot.” Sweetness, p.227). She is beyond her years in many ways, yet fights back the tears when her sisters hurt her feelings.

While the protagonist is a young girl, I would say they are more high school and adult books. They are not considered Young Adult Fiction, yet my 15-year-old nieces and 11-year-old daughter have read them. While they enjoy them, I think they miss some of the funnier lines and references that only come from once being that age and having the maturity to view it differently, as well as the experience to recognize different works of literature and the era in which the book is set. I have yet to solve the mystery before Flavia, so they are well-written. I don’t want you to think that just because she is young that the mysteries are light. They are all murders and there is a bit of peril involved.

What amazes me the most is that the author captures a young girl on the cusp of becoming a teenager, yet Alan Bradley is a Canadian in his 70s. There are so many lines from the books that I just love. Here are some of them:

“You are unreliable, Flavia,” he said.

Of course I was! It was one of the things I loved most about myself. Eleven year olds are supposed to be unreliable. We’re past the age of being poppets; the age where people bend over and poke us in the tum…And yet we’re not at the age where anyone mistakes us for grown-ups. The fact is, we’re invisible – except when we choose not to be. (The Weed…, p 112)

“Horehound sticks are meant to be shared with friends,” she said.

She was dead wrong about that: Horehound sticks were meant to be gobbled down in solitary gluttony and preferably in a locked room. (The Weed…, p 145)

On the British Broadcasting Channel (BBC) voice actors all sound the same: “The BBC must breed these people on a secret farm.” (The Weed…, p 258)

“I had to make water,” I said. It was the classic female excuse, and no male in recorded history had ever questioned it. (A Red Herring…, p 75)

Compared to my life, Cinderella was a spoiled brat. (A Red Herring…, p 101)

Alone at last! Whenever I’m with other people, part of me shrinks a little. Only when I am alone can I fully enjoy my own company. (A Red Herring…p 102)

Undefeated, I saw down and removed my shoes and socks. When I come to write my autobiography, I must remember to record the fact that a chicken-wire fence can be scaled by a girl in bare feet, but only by one who is willing to suffer the tortures of the damned to satisfy her curiosity. (A Red Herring…p 142)

*****

I find myself reading these books with a smile on my face – they entertain, they make me laugh, they test the intellect. They are a joy and I will lend them out and reread them endlessly.