"And then I heard a footstep downstairs.
What was I to do? The possibilities flashed across my brain. I could gallop down the stairs in tears, pretending I had become lost and disorientated while sleepwalking. I could claim I was suffering a nervous breakdown and didn't know where I was; that I had seen, from the farmyard, a face at an upstairs window, beckoning me with a long finger: that I had thought it was Grace Ingleby in distress.
Interesting though they were, these actions would all come with consequences, and it there were one thing I did not need, it was to introduce complications to my life. No, I thought, I would sneak down the stairs and hope like mad I would not be caught."
I have never been a mystery fan, for no good or remembered reason. With the discovery of Shane Peacock's Young Sherlock Holmes cases and Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce stories, I am a new and dedicated fan.
I have previously told you about The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, Flavia's first case. In this, her second, we come to admire her tenacity and her impish nature even more, if that is possible. She remains original and filled with old world charm, not uncommon in the 1950s British setting. She is a chemistry connoisseur and doesn't mind trying to help her listeners understand poisons and their uses. She is wise beyond her years and so engaging that you cannot help but be drawn to her. And, she is brilliant at detective work. Her mind is constantly abuzz with questions and possibilities.
Her voice is authentic, and often humorous. She continues to battle with her older sisters, cares greatly for her father's valet, Dogger and concerns herself with the goings-on in Bishop's Lacey. Sequels offer up their own special challenges, especially when the first proved such a huge success. Alan Bradley serves up a ingenious second helping of Flavia. She is precocious, but delightful. I recently read an interview with Alan Bradley who, when asked who should play Flavia in a film version of his mysteries, said 'a complete unknown'. I agree...Flavia has star quality of her own and we wouldn't want any preconceived notions about her before her wily screen persona is allowed to develop.
In the first scene she is lying in the cemetery imagining the reaction to her death:
"Dogger, of course, would be inconsolable. Dear Dogger, butler-cum-chauffeur-cum-valet-cum gardener-cum estate-manager: a poor shell-shocked soul whose capabilities ebbed and flowed like the Severn tides; Dogger, who had recently saved my life an forgotten it by the next day. I should miss him terribly.
And I should miss my chemistry laboratory. I thought of all the golden hours I'd spent there in that abandoned wing of Buckshaw, blissfully alone among the flasks,
the retorts, and the cheerily bubbling tubes and beakers. And to think that I'd never see them again. It was almost too much to bear."
In this mystery we meet a host of new characters, too many to mention. Each plays a leading role in the murder mystery that transpires. Each has an impact on Flavia and her solution to a case that involves the death of a young child and the murder of a famous puppeteer. We know these players because Flavia has introduced them to us in a series of portraits that give them vivid life.
It is not a chore to read the first of Flavia's forays into detective work and would be beneficial to readers of this second mystery. There is so much to know about the de Luce family dynamic, their staff, their hometown and the people in it, Flavia's knowledge and love of poisons and her personality. Readers could make this their first story, but they would be missing much that has transpired in the earlier book.
That being said, an afternoon spent with Flavia, no matter the case she is solving, is a wonder and not to be missed.
A third book is in the works! Wahoo!!
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