Showing posts with label Alan Bradley. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alan Bradley. Show all posts

Feb 2, 2013

Book Review: Speaking from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley


Title: Speaking from Among the Bones: a Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley
Published January 29, 2013; Delacorte Press hardcover
Genre: mystery
Source: library
The face of a carved wooden imp grinned at me saucily in the shadows. I touched his puffed-out polished cheeks and gave them a twist.
There was a click and the panel slid open.
I stepped carefully inside.
(ch. 13)
Flavia de Luce, the young chemist and amateur sleuth, turns age 12 and begins to be taken more seriously by her older sisters, who used to tease her horribly, telling her she was adopted or a foundling. Her distracted father tells her that she is a "genius" like her mother, who died years ago in a mountaineering accident in the Himalayas.

Flavia, traveling around on a rickety bicycle she named Gladys, goes on to solve the murder of an organist at their church in the English village of Bishop's Lacy, and in so doing, unearths a mystery surrounding the local saint, St. Tancred, who may be an early ancestor of her family, the de Luces.

I liked this book as much as the first in the series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, which won the author the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award, the Agatha Award, the Barry Award, the Dilys Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Macavity Award, and the Spotted Owl Award.


Feb 19, 2011

Book Review: A Red Herring without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley

A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel



A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Novel
by Alan Bradley
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: Delacorte Press (February 8, 2011)
Genre: mystery
Source: Library
Rating: 5/5

Comments: Bradley has done it again, another perfect mystery featuring that precocious and witty 11-year-old sleuth, Flavia de Luce. The books seem to be getting better and better and Bradley is hard at work on his fourth in the series!

In A Red Herring Without Mustard, Flavia befriends a tired old Gypsy woman at an annual fete and invites her to park her caravan on her father's property in a secluded and grassy bend of the river. When the Gypsy woman is attacked in the night and seriously injured, her head bashed in, all eyes turn suspiciously to Flavia who was the last to see her. A murder occurs on her father's property soon after, and Flavia becomes involved in the case of a missing baby the Gypsy was supposed to have kidnapped and carried off many years earlier.

Flavia dodges the attentions of her father and sisters to carry out her sleuthing in the village, day as well as in the early hours of the morning. With her trusty bicycle, Gladys, the 11-year-old glides through the village and uses her sleuthing skills, her insatiable curiosity, as well as her knowledge of chemistry to track down clues and put them together to solve the mysteries.

Told in the first person, the narrative moves swiftly, as Flavia moves from one thing to the next and takes us on her journeys with her. Witty and observant, her words are delightful and full of clever images that make the book much more than just a good plot. If you enjoyed the first two in the series, then A Red Herring will be an even better treat.

Oct 23, 2010

Book Review: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag


The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia De Luce Mystery) by Alan Bradley is the follow up to the successful  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and is just as good. In fact, it's better.

About the book: Flavia once again gets involved in solving a murder. Because she is only 11-years-old, she can often go snooping around and asking questions without arousing any alarm or distrust. Besides, she always has good excuses for being in places she shouldn't be. Her escapades and getting out of them are part of the amusement of the book. Her ongoing competition with her older sisters should get a sympathetic nod from younger sisters everywhere.

Rating: Glad I found the book at our local library. I gave this a 5!

Author:  Bradley, who lives in Malta,  is now writing the third in the series, A Red Herring Without Mustard.  It will be out on Feb. 8. Can't wait!

Sep 28, 2010

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Hosted by MizB, Teaser Tuesdays asks you to choose two sentences at random from your current read. Identify the author and title for readers.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley, published 2010 by Bantam
"And there at the end of it, tinted an awful dewy cucumber green by the dark foliage, was a face. A face that looked for all the world like the Green Man of forest legend." (ch. 2)
Publisher's description: An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions—and a rich literary delight.
Comments: After trying many times to get a copy of this book, I finally found it on the shelves at the library and am on page 29! Enjoying it though it took me about 10 pages to get interested. Luckily, the reputation of the novel egged me on, and am not disappointed.

I like the verve and the playfulness of 11 year old Flavia, whose curiousity leads her on to investigate the death of a man found in her kitchen garden. Author Alan Bradley has written a follow up to this first mystery novel and I hope to get to that one as well!

Sunday Salon: Letting Go of September by Sandra J. Jackson

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