NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The world s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth (The Seattle Times), Flavia de Luce, returns in a twisty mystery novel from award-winning author Alan Bradley.
In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days. For a needed escape, Dogger, the loyal family servant, suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavia s grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body. If anything could take Flavia s mind off sorrow, it is solving a murder although one that may lead the young sleuth to an early grave.
Praise for The Grave s a Fine and Private Place
Flavia [is] irrepressible, precocious and indefatigable. . . . A whole new chapter of Flavia s life opens as she approaches adolescence. Will she become the Madame Curie of crime? Bookreporter
Outstanding . . . As usual, Bradley makes his improbable series conceit work and relieves the plot s inherent darkness with clever humor. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
There s only one Flavia. . . . Series fans will anticipate the details of this investigation, along with one last taste of Flavia s unorthodox family life. Library Journal (starred review)
Bradley s unquenchable heroine brings the most complicated case I had ever come across to a highly satisfying conclusion, with the promise of still brighter days ahead. Kirkus Reviews
In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days. For a needed escape, Dogger, the loyal family servant, suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavia s grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body. If anything could take Flavia s mind off sorrow, it is solving a murder although one that may lead the young sleuth to an early grave.
Praise for The Grave s a Fine and Private Place
Flavia [is] irrepressible, precocious and indefatigable. . . . A whole new chapter of Flavia s life opens as she approaches adolescence. Will she become the Madame Curie of crime? Bookreporter
Outstanding . . . As usual, Bradley makes his improbable series conceit work and relieves the plot s inherent darkness with clever humor. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
There s only one Flavia. . . . Series fans will anticipate the details of this investigation, along with one last taste of Flavia s unorthodox family life. Library Journal (starred review)
Bradley s unquenchable heroine brings the most complicated case I had ever come across to a highly satisfying conclusion, with the promise of still brighter days ahead. Kirkus Reviews
Flavia [is] irrepressible, precocious and indefatigable. . . . A whole new chapter of Flavia s life opens as she approaches adolescence. Will she become the Madame Curie of crime? Bookreporter
Outstanding . . . As usual, Bradley makes his improbable series conceit work and relieves the plot s inherent darkness with clever humor. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
There s only one Flavia. . . . Series fans will anticipate the details of this investigation, along with one last taste of Flavia s unorthodox family life. Library Journal (starred review)
Fans of the precocious sleuth who share her unapologetically enthusiastic sense that an unexamined corpse was a tale untold will rub their hands gleefully, confident that her resolution will unleash a dazzling barrage of innocent-seeming questions, recherché chemical and pharmacological tidbits, fibs and whoppers, and the most coyly bratty behavior outside the pages of Kay Thompson s chronicles of Eloise. . . . Bradley s unquenchable heroine brings the most complicated case I had ever come across to a highly satisfying conclusion, with the promise of still brighter days ahead. Kirkus Reviews
Acclaim for Alan Bradley s beloved Flavia de Luce novels, winners of the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Award, Barry Award, Agatha Award, Macavity Award, Dilys Award, and Arthur Ellis Award
If ever there were a sleuth who s bold, brilliant, and, yes, adorable, it s Flavia de Luce. USA Today
Delightful . . . a combination of Eloise and Sherlock Holmes. The Boston Globe
[Flavia] is as addictive as dark chocolate. Daily Mail
The plucky adolescent is terrifically entertaining the world s foremost braniac/chemist/sleuth/busybody/smarty-pants. Nobody can touch her in that category. The Seattle Times
Outstanding . . . As usual, Bradley makes his improbable series conceit work and relieves the plot s inherent darkness with clever humor. Publishers Weekly (starred review)
There s only one Flavia. . . . Series fans will anticipate the details of this investigation, along with one last taste of Flavia s unorthodox family life. Library Journal (starred review)
Fans of the precocious sleuth who share her unapologetically enthusiastic sense that an unexamined corpse was a tale untold will rub their hands gleefully, confident that her resolution will unleash a dazzling barrage of innocent-seeming questions, recherché chemical and pharmacological tidbits, fibs and whoppers, and the most coyly bratty behavior outside the pages of Kay Thompson s chronicles of Eloise. . . . Bradley s unquenchable heroine brings the most complicated case I had ever come across to a highly satisfying conclusion, with the promise of still brighter days ahead. Kirkus Reviews
Acclaim for Alan Bradley s beloved Flavia de Luce novels, winners of the Crime Writers Association Debut Dagger Award, Barry Award, Agatha Award, Macavity Award, Dilys Award, and Arthur Ellis Award
If ever there were a sleuth who s bold, brilliant, and, yes, adorable, it s Flavia de Luce. USA Today
Delightful . . . a combination of Eloise and Sherlock Holmes. The Boston Globe
[Flavia] is as addictive as dark chocolate. Daily Mail
The plucky adolescent is terrifically entertaining the world s foremost braniac/chemist/sleuth/busybody/smarty-pants. Nobody can touch her in that category. The Seattle Times