Title: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
Author: Alan Bradley
Genre / Pages: Fiction, Crime / 358
Publication: 2015
Rating: 4th shelf
Source: Chapters Indigo
Lj's plot in one pot: Ms de Luce, having been transplanted to Canada, finds something rotten at Miss Bodycote's (and I ain't talking about the corpse).
If you have read any of my reviews on the Flavia series, this one won't surprise you. Flavia is, quite simply, my spirit animal. She is a quirky, precocious, chemistry wizard, who seems to attract dead bodies...yet her naïveté with some worldly situations belies her actual age of 12.
If you haven't read the previous instalments...Spoilers ahead!
Following the arrival of her long-lost mother's remains, Flavia is sent to boarding school in Canada to learn how to be an active member of the "Nide" (a secret society).
A friend who also reads the series told me that fans of Bradley's ingenious murder plots will be disappointed, whereas fans of Flavia will be pleased as punch. She was spot on. Although there is a murder, it is definitely the background plot, whilst Flavia snoops on, being tormented by school girls as opposed to her sisters.
Flavia is so expertly written, I continually am shocked to remember that she is written by a man. Story arc and historical accuracy (and obviously fantastic character development) make this a great read!
"I came to the conclusion, at last, that it was like this: Tickling and learning were much the same thing. When you tickle yourself - ecstasy; but when anyone else tickles you - agony." (p.110)
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