As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust

I have changed my mind about Flavia de Luce. Or perhaps Bradley gets better as he goes on. Either way, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Enjoyable...but probably my least favorite in the series to date.

Not as gripping as some of the earlier Flavia de Luce books, but still a solid story. (And, I am beginning to wonder if Bradley is ever going to let Flavia grow up a bit. She has been 12 for many years now.)
3.5 stars rounded up.

I do miss the setting in England, but it was still a fun book

Boarding school bloodhound
living with your mother's ghost
no new friends for you.

I do believe I've found a new young heroine to add to my shelf of favorites! When I saw the synopsis for As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust I was instantly smitten. Stories where young ladies do amazing things make me smile. Plus, I love a good mystery. What I didn't know, was that this book is the 7th in a series. Generally that would put me off, but I quickly realized that it didn't matter much. There were times I wished for more information, but overall I fell completely in love. I can't wait to go back and start from the beginning!

Flavia de Luce is a one of a kind character. A young girl with a deep passion for science, and an equal obsession with solving mysteries! Since I didn't have much back story on Flavia, it was like a puzzle to put together her personality. I couldn't have been happier. When a body came tumbling out of the fireplace in her room and, rather than scream, she immediately started cataloging items, I was thrilled. What a brave girl! Things only got better from there. Flavia is witty, brilliant and a ton of fun to follow.

So why the four stars? Mainly, this book went a tiny bit off the rails for me at the ending. I was willing to put aside a lot of questions, since I haven't started from the beginning of this tale. However the ending felt a little confusing. There is so much unknown. I am eager to find out what is going on with the secret society mentioned, and I can't wait to meet Flavia's family.

If you have the chance to listen to this on audio, please do! It's fabulous.

Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is out of her element in this, the 7th installment, of Alan Bradley's series. The start of the novel has her on a ship, mid-way across the Atlantic, bound for Canada, where she will be starting her education at Miss Bodycote's Female Academy. She barely has time to settle into her new home when a body comes tumbling down from the chimney, wrapped in the Union Jack and whose head has been replaced with a different skull. Her homesickness is gone at the prospect of a mystery to solve, and she gets right to work. Her investigation reveals students gone missing, a peek into the secret society in which her mother was a member, and a teacher with a murderous past.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Flavia's personality was just what we've come to know and love - she's precocious, quick on her feet, and not afraid of anything. The development of the other characters - her classmates, teachers, and even the headmistress - were all wonderful and it was easy to distinguish one from another. Miss Bodycote's school and the surrounding city are described in wonderful detail, right down to the general store run by the woman who is entertained by Flavia's “charming” accent.

I was a bit disappointed, however, in how disjointed this book felt from the rest of the series. Without access to her attic chemistry laboratory, Flavia finds herself without the solace of chemistry for most of the book. The mystery itself was sometimes illogical - Flavia determines the body must have spent a significant amount of time stuffed up in the chimney, but how would someone have used the fireplace without it being noticed? I'll also freely admit that I missed Buckshaw! The characters, the settings, dependable Dogger and Gertrude...the story arcs that had been built up over the series were seemingly abandoned, and this new setting didn't feel quite like home. Things were touched upon briefly during this novel that I wished had been expanded upon, namely Harriet's time at the school and her participation in the Nides, the secret society that Flavia is there to become a part of as well. Secrets were not elaborated on, and I hope that Bradley plans on returning to these topics for more detail.

In the end, I love this series and so I enjoyed the book. I can't wait, however, for Flavia to be back home at Buckshaw, where she belongs.

(I received an advanced copy from NetGalley for review.)