Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication date: January 2013
Pages: 400
Source: Library
For: Fun
Series: Flavia de Luce, Book 5
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches by Alan Bradley
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication date: January 2014
Pages: 336
Source: e-book from NetGalley
For: Review
Series: Flavia de Luce, Book 6
Summaries (sort of):
Flavia is the budding chemist and sneaky sleuth wrapped into an 11-year-old package. She's obsessed with solving the crimes that appear in her small town of Bishop's Lacey, and they just keep coming. In Speaking from Among the Bones, the town is digging up St. Tancred, but they discover a different body instead. In The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, Harriet (Flavia's mother) is coming home, but even before she's arrived, there are mysterious messages from strangers and Flavia must figure out what may have happened to Harriet.
Things I Liked about Both:
I just really enjoy reading these books (or listening to them on audio, thanks to narrator Jane Entwistle). Flavia is a lot of fun, eager to please and trying to figure out where she fits in the world and her family. But I love her unique way of assessing things and figuring out the mysteries. The books all tended to follow a very regular pattern, until the last one which kind of sent us on a different path. I'd really like more Flavia books in the future, especially as we might learn more about Harriet in them!
Things I Didn't Like:
Sometimes, I just had to raise my eyebrows at the way things conveniently happened or how Flavia knew something so obscure or random. Still, I just get some plain, old-fashioned pleasure out of these stories.
Read-alikes:
Start with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Reminds me of The Agency series by Y.S. Lee
BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !
maybe one or two
mrg-factor:none
v-factor: none
usually a murder involved though not explicitly described
Overall rating: ****
If you buy through my Amazon linkage, I will get a very small percentage
Posts
I totally agree. I love these books. Love the audio versions. Have to roll my eyes, but if you don't have the unbelievability at times, there's no story. Flavia is one-of-a-kind, and I, too, hope there's more to come! Great thoughts.
ReplyDeleteGreat audio, right? And you do have to have some unbelievability. I love that most of the time I don't even care about that - just want more Flavia!
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