Review: AS CHIMNEY SWEEPERS COME TO DUST, Alan Bradley

• Format: Kindle
• File Size: 965 KB
• Print Length: 386 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 038567838X
• Publisher: Orion (April 23, 2015)
• Publication Date: April 23, 2015
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00OKJWYVA
• Source: Review copy from Net Galley
• #7 in the Flavia De Luce series

Synopsis (Amazon)

It all began with that awful business about my mother, Harriet...


Following the dramatic events at the conclusion of THE DEAD IN THEIR VAULTED ARCHES and the shocking revelations about her mother, Flavia de Luce finds herself expelled from the familiar confines of Bishop's Lacey and her beloved family home, Buckshaw, and 'packed off', as she puts it, to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada. With its forbidding headmistress and bizarre rules, adapting to Miss Bodycote's is quite a challenge. But Flavia is soon on familiar ground, when, on her first night, a mummified body is dislodged from a chimney, and she is presented with a gruesome puzzle to solve.

And the mystery of the withered corpse is only the beginning. Girls have been disappearing from Miss Bodycote's with alarming regularity, leading Flavia to wonder not only how and why, but what exactly is the academy's true purpose, and why were they so keen that she enrol? If Flavia is to avoid the same fate as the missing girls, she must enter a shadowy world where truth and lies seem interchangeable and no one can be trusted. And ultimately she must discover what it means to be her mother's daughter.

My Take

Perhaps it was because I haven't read #6 in this series, but I didn't enjoy this outing with Alan Bradley as much as I expected to.

I think it was partly because I'm not sure that the series has not become one directed at a teenage audience rather than an older adult one. There feels to be a hint of "Girl's Own" about it and Flavia's precociousness really ceased to amuse me. I kept thinking "after all, she is only a teenager", as she leapt to another misjudgement. In the long run I'm not sure why she was sent to Canada. There were surely other people on the spot at Miss Bodycote's Female Academy who knew what had been happening and could have solved the mysteries well enough. In fact, I didn't particularly like the denouement either.

Having got all that off my chest, it really was still acceptable reading, just not as good as earlier titles in the series. If I could write even half as well I'd be pleased.

My rating: 4.0


I've also read
4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
4.5, THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG
4.5, A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD
4.7, I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS
4.7, SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES  

From the POV of a twelve year old

It occurred to me as I was reading this week that I have recently reviewed three books written from the point of view of a twelve year old girl.

In two of them the girl sees herself as a sort of detective, but that is really where any similarity stops. All of them are reminders that children are great observers who don't always interpret what they see in the same way as an adult. At this age too, other things are happening in their lives, their bodies are at times giving rather confusing signals, but they have a great curiosity about their place in the world.

I think it takes a special writing skill to write convincingly from the point of view of a child, especially  one on the cusp of adolescence, and each of these authors does it very well. And yet the books are not really meant for teenage readers. It is assumed that the reader is an adult who will be able to fill in the blanks and see a little further than the protagonist. I point out two that two of the authors are female, one male - I think there is another skill we should recognise in the writing of Alan Bradley.

The most recent of the books is THE EARTH HUMS IN B FLAT by Mari Strachan.

Synopsis (Text Publishing)

Up here, far away from everybody, the night is peaceful; there’s no sound except the hum of the Earth. At school, when I sang the note to Mr Hughes he said it was B flat.

Gwenni Morgan can fly in her sleep—that’s how she sees what’s going on in the village, and how she tries to make some sense of her family and her world. But Gwenni’s mother isn’t too keen on her daughter’s imaginative ways; she doesn’t want anyone thinking her odd.

When Ifan Evans goes missing, Gwenni tries to help find him, much to her mother’s distress. And as she begins to put the pieces together, a terrible truth is revealed.

Set in a small Welsh village in the 1950s, The Earth Hums in B Flat is a story of dark family secrets. It’s filled with wonderful characters and written with insight and sparkling tenderness.

See my review


And then on the weekend I finished SUFFICIENT GRACE by Australian author Amy Espeseth.

Synopsis (from the publisher, Scribe Publications, Melbourne)

Ruth and her cousin Naomi live in rural Wisconsin, part of an isolated religious community. The girls’ lives are ruled by the rhythms of nature — the harsh winters, the hunting seasons, the harvesting of crops — and by their families’ beliefs. Beneath the surface of this closed, frozen world, hidden dangers lurk.

Then Ruth learns that Naomi harbours a terrible secret. She searches for solace in the mysteries of the natural world: broken fawns, migrating birds, and the strange fish deep beneath the ice. Can the girls’ prayers for deliverance be answered?

Sufficient Grace is a story of lost innocence and the unfailing bond between two young women. It is at once devastating and beautiful, and ultimately transcendent.

See my review


The third book is a more traditional crime fiction novel, the latest in Alan Bradley's Flavia De Luce series, SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES. I read this one a few months back.

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they're found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters' diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies.

Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred's death, the English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint's tomb. Nobody is more excited to peek inside the crypt than Flavia, yet what she finds will halt the proceedings dead in their tracks: the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist, his face grotesquely and inexplicably masked.

Who held a vendetta against Mr. Collicutt, and why would they hide him in such a sacred resting place? The irrepressible Flavia decides to find out. And what she unearths will prove there's never such thing as an open-and-shut case.

See my reviews:

4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
4.5, THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG
4.5, A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD
4.7, I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS
4.7, SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES 

Review: SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES, Alan Bradley

• this edition published by Delacorte Press (2013?)
• ISBN 978-0-385-34403-6
• 375 pages
• #5 in the Flavia de Luce series

Synopsis (Fantastic Fiction)

Eleven-year-old amateur detective and ardent chemist Flavia de Luce is used to digging up clues, whether they're found among the potions in her laboratory or between the pages of her insufferable sisters' diaries. What she is not accustomed to is digging up bodies.

Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred's death, the English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint's tomb. Nobody is more excited to peek inside the crypt than Flavia, yet what she finds will halt the proceedings dead in their tracks: the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist, his face grotesquely and inexplicably masked.

Who held a vendetta against Mr. Collicutt, and why would they hide him in such a sacred resting place? The irrepressible Flavia decides to find out. And what she unearths will prove there's never such thing as an open-and-shut case.

My Take

Another enjoyable tale featuring young detective Flavia de Luce.
You really must read these in order. They are delightful cosies. The characters of Flavia, her father, her two sisters and the members of the household blossom from book to book. In SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES Flavia's bicycle Gladys takes on a life of her own.

The stories take on an aura of plausibility and you accept the wackiness of Flavia's detection skills without question. I thought as I read this one that young adult readers might enjoy the stories too.

Although Alan Bradley is a Canadian writer, the setting is firmly England in the early 1950s. The family home, Buckshaw, is under threat of sale, with Colonel de Luce having to pay exorbitant death duties after the presumed death of his wife Harriet, Flavia's mother, who disappeared while climbing in the Himalayas when Flavia was small.

We are promised #6 in the series in 2014, THE DEAD IN THEIR VAULTED ARCHES, an event to look forward to.

My Rating: 4.7

Check Flavia's website.

Other reviews
4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
4.5, THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG
4.5, A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD
4.7, I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS

Review: I AM HALF-SICK OF SHADOWS, Alan Bradley

• This edition published by Orion Books 2011
• ISBN 978-1-4091-1420-8
• 291 pages
• #4 in the Flavia de Luce Mysteries
• Source: my local library

Synopsis (Amazon)

It’s Christmastime, and Flavia de Luce—an eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry—is tucked away in her laboratory, whipping up a concoction to ensnare Saint Nick.

But she is soon distracted when a film crew arrives at Buckshaw, the de Luces’ decaying English estate, to shoot a movie starring the famed Phyllis Wyvern.

Amid a raging blizzard, the entire village of Bishop’s Lacey gathers at Buckshaw to watch Wyvern perform, yet nobody is prepared for the evening’s shocking conclusion: a body found strangled to death with a length of film. But who among the assembled guests would stage such a chilling scene? As the storm worsens and the list of suspects grows, Flavia must ferret out a killer hidden in plain sight.

My Take

A film crew to use Flavia's home Buckshaw as a set is the latest in her father's money making schemes to stave off the debtors. There's plenty of room at Buckshaw to accommodate them and the arrangement is that each will stay out of the other's way. But he has not reckoned with Flavia's insatiable curiosity, nor with the fact that someone will commit murder.

On the night of the blizzard almost the entire population of the village is visiting to watch an impromptu fundraising performance by the main actors. And so it becomes the perfect setting for a "locked room" mystery.

I have enjoyed each in this series featuring 11 year old sleuth Flavia de Luce, Flavia has an insatiable love of Chemistry and this Christmas she wants to test whether Father Christmas is a real person by laying a sticky trap for him on the main chimney.

But there is a delightful cast of characters apart from Flavia: her sisters Daffy and Feely, her father's man-servant Dogger, the cook Mrs Mullet, Dr. Darby, the Vicar and his wife, and even the policemen who come to investigate, all feel larger than life.

This more-or-less cozy series is set post World War II and is certainly worth reading in order.

My rating: 4.7

I have also reviewed
4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
4.5, THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG
4.5, A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD  

Review: A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD, Alan Bradley

• published by Orion Books 2011
• ISBN 978-0-7528-9715-8
• 389 pages
• Source: my local library
• #3 in the Flavia de Luce series

Book Description (Amazon)

Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey—mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia’s own backyard.

Flavia had asked the old Gypsy woman to tell her fortune, but never expected to stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer had abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? Had it something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites? While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon another corpse—that of a notorious layabout who had been caught prowling about the de Luce’s drawing room.

Pedaling Gladys, her faithful bicycle, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers some odd new twists. Most intriguing is her introduction to an elegant artist with a very special object in her possession—a portrait that sheds light on the biggest mystery of all: Who is Flavia?

As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

My take

I discovered today on Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce website that there are another three titles planned for this series, and I'm delighted.

• The 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
• Seeds of Antiquity
• The Nasty Light of Day

I think it isn't just Flavia that I like but also the cast of characters that populate the novels. Even her bicycle Gladys is imbued with character. There are some people like Mrs Mullet, Dogger, the vicar, and the police inspector who persist from novel to novel, and then new characters that are very creatively draw.

There are those such as her older sisters who treat her appallingly, but perhaps little different to the way adolescent girls treat their younger sisters. Flavia is precocious at the same time as being ingenuous and incorrigible. She knows how to wheedle information out of older people, and even from members of the household and the family. And from title to title Flavia learns a little more about her dead mother and her own place in the little community of Bishop's Lacey.

The plot of A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD in a way seems a bit more complex than those of the earlier two titles, but the plotting is tight, and there are enough puzzles to keep the reader thinking.

These are cozies worth reading in order, in fact, make sure that you read them in order.

My rating: 4.5

Other reviews to check

• Chaotic Compendiums
• Becky's Book Reviews
• S. Krishna's Books

My reviews of earlier novels:
4.8, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
4.5, THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG

Review: THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG, Alan Bradley

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 480 KB
• Print Length: 364 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0752897136
• Publisher: Orion (April 15, 2010)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003FXCSMM
• Source: I bought it

Synopsis (from author's site)
When a traveling puppet show sets up on the village green in Bishop’s Lacey, death stalks the little stage. Flavia goes behind the scenes to learn the craft (so to speak) in order to catch an ingenious killer.

From Scribd
Flavia de Luce, a dangerously smart eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders, thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey are over — until beloved puppeteer Rupert Porson has his own strings sizzled in an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. But who’d do such a thing,and why? Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What about Porson’s charming but erratic assistant? All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve — without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head?

My take

Hanging out in the company of a precocious nearly-eleven year old whose passions are death, chemistry, and poisons won't be every crime fiction reader's cup of tea. In fact anybody in the company of Flavia de Luce has to be very careful of what you eat and drink.  But having said I wasn't sure of Flavia in my review of #1 in the series THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE I have to say now that I am hooked. 

There is something very engaging about all that precociousness and enthusiasm. Alan Bradley could easily have written these novels using a more conventional sleuth but Flavia manages to go places that adults simply couldn't or wouldn't go and assemble information in a way they couldn't. Flavia, despite her precociousness, doesn't always understand what she's learnt, and that is where the reader with (our) superior life experience comes in.

THE WEED THAT STRINGS is really a light yet quirky cozy read. Sure there is a murder mystery to be solved and plenty to exercise the brain that likes puzzles, but there is really no blood and gore. There's a taste of village life in Britain in the 1950s, with a German ex-prisoner of war who fell in love with the Brontes, a glimpse of the beginning of popular television, alongside manorial society struggling to survive.

A very enjoyable read. My rating: 4.5 

Read an extract of THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG.
Alan Bradley talks about how he found Flavia (or did she find him?)
The Flavia de Luce website

Other reviews to check:

• Juxtabook
• She Reads Novels
• Reviewing the Evidence (Yvonne Klein)

Next in the series:
#3 A Red Herring Without Mustard (2010)
#4. I Am Half Sick of Shadows (2011)

Review: THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, Alan Bradley

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 480 KB
• Print Length: 304 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0752883216
• Publisher: Orion (April 30, 2009)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services 
• Source: I bought it.

Amazon Best of the Month, April 2009:
It's the beginning of a lazy summer in 1950 at the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey. Up at the great house of Buckshaw, aspiring chemist Flavia de Luce passes the time tinkering in the laboratory she's inherited from her deceased mother and an eccentric great uncle. When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices? With her widowed father and two older sisters far too preoccupied with their own pursuits and passions—stamp collecting, adventure novels, and boys respectively—Flavia takes off on her trusty bicycle Gladys to catch a murderer. 

My take:

I'm not entirely sure of the 11 year old precocious heroine/detective, Flavia de Luca. There are times when she seems much older than 11! There are an incredible number of reviews on Amazon, and those who generally didn't like the novel, cited Flavia's character as the cause.

And don't believe those who say they found it a quick read! Well, it wasn't for me anyway.

But what hooked me was the language. Alan Bradley has a delightful turn of phrase. Flavia's narrative is  littered with classical illusions as well as Flavia's own interest in all things chemical.

The panel on the right portrayed Jesus emerging from his tomb, as Mary Magdalene, in a red dress (also iron, or perhaps grated particles of gold), holds out to him a purple garment (manganese dioxide) and a loaf of yellow bread (silver chloride). I knew that these salts had been mixed with sand and the ashes of a salt-marsh reed called glasswort, fired in a furnace hot enough to have given even Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego second thoughts,

...........

I had a quick look round at my surroundings. I was in a dismal little room with sticks of furniture so shabby that they might have been bought directly off the tailgate of a peddler’s cart, their legs chipped and dented as if they had suffered a century of kicks in the shin from government-regulation boots. In a vain attempt to cheer things up, a tiny wooden cupboard had been painted apple green, but the sink was a rust-stained relic that might have been on loan from Wormwood Scrubs. Cracked cups and crazed saucers stood sadly cheek by jowl on a draining board, and I noticed for the first time that the mullions of the window were, in fact, iron bars only half-heartedly disguised. The whole place had an odd, sharp odour I had noticed when I first came in: it smelled as if a jar of gentleman’s relish, forgotten years ago at the back of a drawer, had gone off.

The novel is set in 1950, but it often felt almost Edwardian or even Dickensian.
So if you are looking for a cozy that is a little bit different, with a sleuth who is certainly different, then this may be just the ticket. Make sure you have time to savour the careful prose though. And listen carefully - you may hear me chortling!

My rating: 4.8

In 2007 Alan Bradley won the CWA Debut Dagger for THE SWEETNESS.. at the age of 70 years.

Other reviews to check:

• DJsKrimiblog: my one-word judgement: wonderful!
• Material Witness: On the face of it, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the debut novel of Canadian writer Alan Bradley, could hardly have been less promising.
• Miss Lemon's Mysteries: highly enjoyable mystery with a gratifyingly original heroine.
• Not Now ... I'm Reading: I haven't read many mysteries...but this one has to be my hands-down favourite.

I'm counting  THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE in the Cruisin' thru Cosies Reading Challenge, the Canadian Book Challenge 2010-2011, and e-book challenge