Book Review: Speaking From Among the Bones

I made the mistake of picking up the sixth installment of the Flavia de Luce novels at the library before securing this fifth installment, Speaking From Among the Bones. Even though I intended to read them in order, I couldn't help but peek at the description on the back cover for the sixth book. In doing so, I rendered the most suspenseful and shocking part of this fifth book null and void. What a shame! Thus, I will try to share some details of this book without giving away the big shocker at the end. Suffice it to say, the cliff-hanger ending will leave devoted readers of the Flavia de Luce novels anxious to get their hands on the sixth.

Once again, Flavia de Luce is knee-deep in murder and determined to investigate right alongside the trained detectives. Her keen powers of observation take her along the road to solving the murder long before the detectives have pieced together the puzzle. This time around, Flavia finds the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist. The community is abuzz with the news of the intended opening of St. Tancred's tomb, in celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of his death. No one expects to find a different body, shrouded with a gas mask, on top of the sarcophagus. Flavia goes to desperate lengths, even crawling along a tunnel from one grave into the underside of the church, to unearth bits of evidence. As she racks up one clue after the next, she is also dealing with the engagement of her sister, Ophelia, and the possible loss of her cherished home, Buckshaw.

Author Alan Bradley has come up with a quite likeable character in eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce. With her love of chemistry, and specifically poisons, and her intrepid manner of scouting out the clues, she is sure to dazzle the reader with her spunk and intelligence. These novels are entertaining and delightful. The chase is on to solve the crime and you know already that Flavia will have a tremendous hand in ferreting it all out.