Quote of the week: “Good books don't give up all their secrets at once.”
― Stephen King
Alan Bradley
― Stephen King
Alan Bradley
The Flavia de Luce
mysteries is a multi-award winning series; and, when I say awarding winning, I
should mention that the first book in the series The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie won more awards than any
debut novel of a series ever published, including Debut Dagger Award of the
(British) Crimewriter’s Association for his novel, the 2009 Agatha Award for
Best First Novel, the 2010 Dilys Award, the Spotted Owl Award, and the 2010
Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel.
Hence, with each new publication,
a flurry of shelf building can be found in the Bradley household.
Alan Bradley was born in Toronto
and grew up in Cobourg, Ontario. He received his training as an electric
engineer and worked in many radio and television stations across Ontario, as well as, at Ryerson
University in Toronto
and as the Director of Television Engineering at the University
of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon where he worked for 25 years. While
at the University
of Saskatchewan, he
taught courses in script writing and television production. He has also won awards for children’s
literature and has had podcasts of his short stories on CBC Radio.
He has had a life time interest in mystery genre and was a
founding member of The Casebook of Saskatoon Society for Sherlock Holmes
enthusiasts. Here, he met Dr. S.J.
Sarjeant with whom he collaborated to write Ms.
Holmes of Baker Street, the controversial book that proposed that Sherlock Holmes
was actually a woman. (To be honest
Alan, I have had my own suspicions for years.)
He began his writing career only after taking early retirement,
beginning his own mystery series with Flavia de Luce. And, this is one reader who is very happy
with this career-life decision!
Alan Bradley is now in his 70s and still going strong. He envisions the series as 6 books. Alan is a fine example of what people can
accomplish after retirement and pursuing dreams regardless of age. Alan is an inspiration to all of us who spend
our time wondering if we could ever write a book or take up a new career later
in life.
The best books emphasize character development; characters
with whom readers can engage, and, no one does this with more style than Alan
Bradley. The character Flavia de Luce was
introduced in The Sweetness at the Bottom
of the Pie along side many quirky characters and proceeds to solve both present
and past mysteries that bloom like weeds in her small rural English village of Bishop’s Lacy during the 1950s. Alan has created a Sherlock Holmes like
character embodied in an eleven year old girl complete with deductive skills
and child like innocence and vulnerabilities that is equally compelling and
endearing. A warning to parents even
though the main character is only eleven years old, this is very much adult
reading as each book addresses at least one grisly murder. In addition, Flavia is fascinated by
chemistry and poisons and spends a great deal of her time trying to get even
with her older sisters…chemically. (Not traits I wish to encourage in my own
brood.) The secondary cast of characters
range from the nobility through all classes of society. The mannerisms of the
British cast are spot on, from colloquialisms of the cook Mrs. Mullet to the
dry crisp language of the Colonel, Flavia’s father.
These mysteries are written from the first person point of
view of Flavia. While first person PVO
limits a story to that main character’s actions and thought processes, I
believe that by using Flavia as our spy lens into the stories the plot is
augmented by her own genius and perceptions, as well as, her innocence in age
and maturity. Flavia, as only children
can, has a greater perception and literal world view that enhances these criminal
investigations. And, most importantly
some of Flavia’s conclusions are just plain funny.
At the heart of these stories is a heartbreakingly lonely
child looking for attention and craving adult acceptance. Flavia’s mother died while she was a toddler
and her father the Colonel, remains distant and unhappy, preoccupied with
impending financial ruin. He buries
himself in his study and his valuable stamp collection. Her older sisters Ophelia and Daphne do not
understand their youngest sister and gang up on the younger Flavia, playing
horrible, if not down right scary pranks on Flavia. Dogger, the handyman, a survivor of the POW
camps of the last war and now suffering from post traumatic stress syndrome, is
the only person paying the remotest amount of attention to this child and that
is when he is not having one of his bad moments and is in a working state of
mind. As the series develops Dogger is
found to be more than he seems and comes through for Flavia in her many sticky
moments. Flavia’s developing relationship with Inspector Hewitt arises out of her
fantasies of being a great detective in order to gain his respect and esteem
and that much sought after adult attention.
Although it must be mentioned Flavia really does enjoy investigating
these murders and admits to a strange fascination with the dead and can
accurately determine how such victims met their bad ends. She is in reality a budding medical examiner.
Alan Bradley has written very clever mysteries with an imp
of an investigator which makes me laugh and marvel at what an eleven year old motherless—and
I must say woefully unsupervised--girl can accomplish with just her bike she
calls Gladys, an old chemistry lab, acute abilities of perception, unquenchable
curiosity and a very generous dose of moxie. Flavia solves her mysteries in the
old fashioned manner of investigation, deduction. The shear extent to which Flavia will go in
her quest to solve these crimes demonstrates a determination and focus rarely
seen outside of the old Sherlock Holmes stories. Her inventive use of common
household materials in her chemistry experiments denotes a brilliant mind, and
by extension indicates how absolutely brilliant Alan Bradley is himself, and
reminds me of the MacGyver show of the 1980s (A strange kind of feeling comes
over me after reading one of these books, as if I could gather up random
materials in the house and build a car.)
Each time I finish these clever stories with a smile, a feeling of hopefulness
and, not to be overlooked, a much better understanding of chemistry.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of
the Pie
Sweetness at the
Bottom of the pie is first Flavia de Luce Mystery. This delightful mystery is set in the summer
of 1950, in rural England
in a rambling old mansion, Buckshaw, fallen on hard times. Working in a lab inherited from a distant
ancestor, our precocious eleven year old main character, Flavia de Luce
indulges in her love of chemistry and her strange passion for poisons. She is the lonely youngest daughter of a
former Colonel, presently most distant father, who lost his wife when Flavia
was only a toddler. Her father is found
most times in his study hidden away with his very precious stamp
collection. Flavia passes her time with
experiments in her lab, getting even with her older sisters, Ophelia and
Daphne, and avoiding suspect cream pies made by the housekeeper Mrs.
Mullet. The hired man, Dogger, suffering
from post traumatic shock following his time spent in the war and in a POW
camp, is ally and friend to Flavia, at least when he is in the present.
Two strange incidents
occur at Buckshaw, which places our clever Flavia, to her absolute delight, in
the middle of a murder investigation.
First, a bird is found dead on the back step with a postage stamp stuck
on its beak. Second, within hours an
unknown man is found dying in the cucumber patch, breathing his last breath
into Flavias face. Flavia launches
herself into these mysteries; travelling over the country side in search of
clues on her trusty bike she calls Gladys.
From high roof tops to the bottom of foul pits, and, from prison cells
to the local library, Flavia collects clues and theories, not to mention the
ire, and finally, admiration of the local police inspector. The writing floats
off the page, light and clever. This is
a perfect book to read on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But beware, Flavia will pedal her way right
into your heart.
The Weed that Strings the
Hangman’s Bag
The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag is the second
installment in Bradley’s series. Flavia
sets out to investigate one murder only to uncover the truth surrounding the
tragic death of a young boy years earlier when Flavia herself was only
five. A mad woman living in the woods, a
German pilot obsessed with the Bronte sisters, a haunted woman tending a shrine
built in a dovecote, a beautiful but pregnant puppeteer’s assistant with marked
bruises on her arms, and even the vicar all seem to be behaving suspiciously as
Flavia collects her evidence through the fields and farms of the deceivingly
quiet English countryside, and succeeds in uncovering more than a few local
secrets.
In The Weed that String the Hangman’s Bag, we return to the
small English village
of Bishop Lacey during
the summer where Flavia de Luce lives with her father and two older sisters in
their crumbling manor Buckshaw. Flavia
is bored and entertaining herself in the cemetery imagining her own funeral,
when she encounters a distraught woman, Nialla, weeping face down on the
ground. Nialla is the assistant of the
famous puppeteer, Rupert Porson, whose van had just broken down near the church
yard. The vicar soon helps the stranded pair
organize a puppet show and enlists Flavia to help. Flavia is thrilled to see the behind the
scenes activity and equipment that creates the illusions of the puppet
theatre. When Rupert is electrocuted mid
performance, Flavia naturally assumes she will be not only a star witness to
this crime, but a valued member of the investigative team. When Inspector Hewitt fails to give Flavia
her due, she sets out on her own to solve the crime. And with great powers of observation and
deduction, Flavia solves two mysteries, but not before she incurs the wrath of
the formidable vicar’s wife, finds a surprising ally in her crusty spinster
Aunt Felicity, and all the while seeking revenge on her older sisters by means
of a tampered box of chocolates.
A Red Herring Without Mustard
In A Herring with Red
Mustard, the third book in the immensely popular Flavia de Luce series, we
return to Bishop’s Lacey of the 1950s. Flavia
embroiders herself into yet another murder mystery. In addition to the usual
suspects, Alan Bradley adds to the mix a fortune telling gypsy complete with
caravan; a dissenting religious group called the Hobblers who has engaged in
strange baptism rituals; and, hillbillyesque family whose baby went missing two
years earlier. All strange incidents seem to intersect at the Palings, a bend
in the river on the Buckshaw property. As
the title suggests, Flavia chases after a few red herrings in this murder
mystery of too many suspects, one of whom literally smells fishy.
It is now fall and Flavia is attending the local fair. No fair is complete without a visit to the
Gypsies tent to have your fortune told, and like all the other children Flavia
is expecting the usual banalities. Flavia is shocked when the gypsy exclaims,
you scare me, darkness surrounds you.
When she adds that a woman is calling out to come home, Flavia jumps
accidently setting the gypsy’s tent on fire.
Flavia sets out to recompensate the poor old woman suffering smoke
inhalation by inviting her to stay on the Palings on Buckshaw. Returning to check on the old gypsy, Flavia
finds she has been bludgeoned in her own caravan. Flavia demonstrates quick thinking and
manages to save the gypsy’s life. Within
a few hours Flavia finds the local thug hanging off the Poseidon fountain on
the Buckshaw lawn, very dead, complete with a De Luce silver fork jammed up his
nose. Flavia determined to solve this mystery
on her own, conceals evidence and alters the facts given to Inspector
Hewitt. Flavia takes on angry roosters
and junk yard dogs sneaking in and out of building and businesses of Bishop’s
Lacy. Even scary, Flavia meets a girl
who could be a friend and must learn to negotiate the intricate twists of a
friendship relationship, not so easy for a girl who talks to her bike,
Gladys. Despite the many directions this
mystery takes Flavia, in the end the solution to the mystery will be found in
the grounds beneath Buckshaw.
With each installment, Alan Bradley draws us deeper into
Flavia’s world. And, there is no better
place to lose yourself for a couple of hours of reading bliss.
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
I Am Half-Sick of
Shadows is the fourth in the charming Flavia de Luce mystery series and a
special Christmas edition. What would
any eleven year old girl budding detective want for Christmas, but, a nice
murder and dead body to examine! (Ok,
maybe only Flavia would put that on her Santa list.) Alan Bradley has served up a brilliant new
story with the return of old characters and new, just in time for the holidays.
Although I usually mention how much I love this series, I
must say that each book gets better. Alan Bradley with each book has further developed
the characters and back stories within the Flavia mysteries adding greater
depth to the ongoing story.
If you are unfamiliar with Flavia de Luce, she is an eleven
year old girl with an obsession for chemistry; a strange fascination for poisons;
and, in direct contradiction to Inspector Hewitt expressed orders to stop
meddling, has solved several mysteries in her tiny hamlet of Bishop’s Lacy; not
a few of which occurred right on the grounds of Buckshaw, the De Luce ancestral
mansion. Flavia is an imp of child,
brilliant beyond safety and sometimes plain common sense; and has on occasion
lied, or should I say altered the truth and even hid evidence from the police
in order to solve the mysteries herself.
All the same, you can not help loving this woefully neglected,
motherless child.
Overwhelmed with financial worries and the impending loss of
Buckshaw the Colonel, Flavia’s father, makes an out of character decision to allows
a Movie production company to set up to film at Buckshaw over the Christmas
holidays. Cast, including a very pregnant Nialla, and crew invade the home in
large numbers and soon have scaffolding and electric equipment spread through
the main floor. With firm orders from
the Colonel to stay in the family rooms, Flavia is of course winding her way
through the snaking cables, climbing scaffolding and chatting up all the members
of the cast and crew including the famous actress, and surprisingly friendly, Phyllis
Wyvern.
The vicar not one to pass up an opportunity to raise funds
for the church roof convinces the actors to put on a performance. Since the community hall plumbing is on the
fritz, the only place large enough to accommodate the performers and towns
people is Buckshaw itself. In for a
penny, in for a pound, the Colonel agrees, only to have the entire town trapped
by a blizzard at Buckshaw. With of
course a murderer running amuck; as it seems, Phyllis Wyvern was not so friendly
after all and had collected quite a few enemies. One angry enough to murder her with her own
movie film, and leave it tied around her neck in a bow. Flavia of course wants to solve this murder;
but, Flavia has made Christmas plans of her own. One, which involves entrapping
‘Father Christmas’ in birdbind to prove his existence to her doubting sisters.
And, the second plan involves her own special blend of chemical pyrotechnics;
you got it, homemade fireworks. Flavia
of course catches more than she bargains for as the whole scheme explodes around
her.
Once again Alan Bradley has written a bang of a story. Perfect for some quiet downtime, I Am
Half-Sick of Shadows is a delightful perky read.
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