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Take the precociousness of Harriet the Spy, the deductive reasoning skills of Sherlock Holmes and the chemistry prowess of Marie Curie and you’ll have Flavia de Luce, the adorable heroine of Alan Bradley’s mystery series.
Flavia is the youngest daughter of the de Luce family. At the age of 12, she has already spent her life dealing with a mother who went missing when she was a baby, a continually distant father and two challenging older sisters. Left mostly to her own devices, Flavia spends her time in her deceased uncle, Tarquin’s, chemistry laboratory where she conducts her own experiments. She also has a unusual habit of stumbling over dead bodies and into mysteries.
Last year, I reviewed the seventh book in the series, which was not my favorite. Flavia was sent away to an academy in Canada, where some of the students are potentially trained to be spies for the same secret group that her mother belonged to before her disappearance (and now confirmed death). I found that novel a bit of a slog, as Flavia was removed from her charming home in the English town of Bishop’s Lacey.
The eighth book, “Thrice the Brided Cat Hath Mew’d” (all of the books in this series have similarly interesting titles), returns Flavia to her ancestral home of Buckshaw and to the cast of characters that readers have come to love throughout the series. Flavia — brilliant, sometimes bratty, but always charming — has a very British, stiff upper lip. She doesn’t always interact with people in the kindest or most heartwarming fashion, likely because she didn’t have the kindest or most heartwarming upbringing. However, there are people in her town who she genuinely cares for, which surprises even herself.
It’s lovely to see Flavia reunite with the people of her extended tribe: Dogger, her father’s faithful man of all work; the vicar’s wife, Cynthia, and Inspector Hewitt and his wife. Many of the supporting characters, however, have only fleeting appearances, from Flavia’s sisters to the family’s housekeeper.
But it works because, after all, the story is all Flavia’s.
Flavia has scarcely returned to Buckshaw when she learns that her father is gravely ill. Looking for a distraction, she runs an errand for Cynthia and stumbles on a gruesome scene: a woodcutter’s body hung upside down behind his own bedroom door. This leads her to explore the dead man’s connection to a beloved children’s author and the author’s son, who was the inspiration for his books.
As per usual, the plot is quirky and told from the unique voice of a budding preteen chemist. Flavia continues to grow older as the series progresses; learning more about her mother’s mysterious background, developing her chemistry talents and her hovering on the cusp of adulthood. She continues to be a lonely figure, but makes the best of it, whizzing around town on her trusty bike, Gladys.
She’s very funny, in an understated sort of way.
There’s a lot of Agatha Christie in Flavia’s stories, so if you’re a fan of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, you’ll love the young de Luce. Happily, it doesn’t seem as if Bradley is finished with his protagonist. The book ends with an event that changes Flavia’s life, setting the stage for even more adventures to come.
