Preteen Flavia de Luce is excited about
the opening of the 500-year-old tomb of Saint Tancred and is determined to
witness the event. However, the first
body uncovered, is that of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist; dead, and wearing a
gas mask. With her skill at chemistry,
detection and a little help, Flavia has yet another murder to solve.
From the beginning, it is clear that
Flavia is a delightful, unusual protagonist.
She is 14 and wonderfully irreverent.
When discussing how to get a bat out of one of the church organ’s pipes,
her suggestion is for her sister to “…play Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D
Minor? Full throttle. That out to fix the little sod.” One cannot help but love her. She is an outsider in her own family. She is brilliant, yet has her insecurities. Her sisters have told her she’s adopted so
she collects samples of everyone’s blood to test for matching. Her best friends
are Gladys, her bicycle which she anthropomorphizes; and Dogger, the
shell-shocked soldier who was with her father during WWII and now works for the
family. There is such a wonderful bond
between Dogger and Flavia. She is
daring, but not fearless.
It cannot be overlooked that an older man
has created such a vibrant, and realistic, young character. In an interview, he talks about how children
of that age are undervalued and too much overlooked yet it’s a wonderful age as
they are just on the cusp of adulthood.
The story is told in first person and Bradley has such a wonderful
voice…”Whenever I’m a little blue I think about cyanide, whose color so
perfectly reflects my mood.”
The story is very much
character-driven. The series started
when Flavia was 11 years old; she is now 14 and we are starting to see her
mature. However, those who come into the
series late needn’t worry. Bradley
provides sufficient back story for each of the characters for new readers to
know who they are and the relationships between. He also introduces a fascinating new
character in the shape of a flora archeologist with a Rolls Royce named
Nancy.
Bradley has a wonderful eye for detail and
period. He provides us with a real sense
of post-war England, still in the stages of uncertainty about the future. He is also able to make chemistry
fascinating.
Although character drives the story, the
plot doesn’t at all suffer for it. We
are taken down curious and shadowy paths.
We, mistakenly, think we know where we are going, and we’re wrong. We’re given a delightful dessert filled with fascinating
tidbits of information, suspense, resolution and a whopping cliffhanger--but
not in a bad way--iced with humor and emotion.
“Speaking form Among the Bones” lags just a touch in the middle, but finishes with a roar. It is a wonderful book and now ranks among my favorites of the series.
SPEAKING FROM AMONG THE BONES (Ama
Sleuth-Flavia de Luce-England-1950s) – VG+
Bradley, Alan – 5th in series
Delacorte Press, 2013
Posts
It sounds as if this would make a great movie.
ReplyDeleteInteresting thought. I really don't know that the magic of Flavia could every be accurately conveyed on the screen. So much of what prevents her from being annoying, is the internal narrative. That's where we learn what motivates her.
ReplyDelete