I am Half-Sick of Shadows

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"Colonel de Luce, in desperate need of funds, rents his beloved estate of Buckshaw over to a film company. They will be shooting a movie over the Christmas holidays, filming scenes in the stately manse with a famous and reclusive star. She is widely despised, so it is to no one's surprise when she turns up murdered, strangled by a length of film from her own movies! With the snow raging outside and Buckshaw locked in, the house is full of suspects. But Flavia de Luce is more than ready to solve the wintry country-house murder. She'll have to be quick-witted, though, to negotiate the volatile chemicals of a cast and crew starting to crack--and locked in a house with a murderer!"-- Provided by publisher.

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Best Since "Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" submitted by Sara W on July 24, 2012, 8:53am I adored Flavia de Luce in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, continued to be charmed with her curiosity in The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, but was surprised at the very dark and creepy denouement and found A Red Herring Without Mustard to be basically good not great.

But I have faith in Alan Bradley and that crazy little chemist Flavia, so I started in on the 4th in the series - even after I realized it was a Christmas-themed mystery. I started on audio, but the narrator's giggly inflection started to get on my nerves. I guess that's just not how I didn't imagine Flavia sounding so flippant and giddy all the time.

I switched to the print version and any and all annoyance fell away. I loved Flavia de Luce and the whole crazy gang at Buckshaw once again. This turned out to be my favorite Flavia mystery since The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The creation of a locked room mystery with half the residents of Bishop's Lacy snowbound at Buckshaw was a nice change from Flavia's past traipsing past forays into neighboring villages, Gypsy encampments, spooky woods and the like.

The premise of renting out Buckshaw as a film set was perfect - setting the scene for an influx of lots of new and mysterious characters - and seemed perfectly practical for a dilapidated old estate with dwindling resources to auction off and fund its upkeep. Because there were so many new characters introduced, I thought the reader had too little information on each to have much of an opinion on suspects, but I didn't really care. I enjoyed Flavia's detective work with Who's Who and old magazines more than I would have enjoyed guessing the true killer before the secret is unveiled.

Flavia's relationship with her sisters appeared to be growing a bit too - I was beginning to find their violent tormenting a little too extreme. There was less of that this time, and a few moments of softness from Feely and from them all at Christmas time. Flavia is so precocious and clever, I especially appreciated a few elements that reinforced her age and relative innocence in things not related to poison or murder. She mentions that Daffy informed her how babies are born, but that it was too ridiculous to be believed. And her belief in Father Christmas and her reaction on the very last page I found just priceless. There was excellent balance in showing Flavia as a rather ruthless investigator and as a regular little girl.

I was concerned the mystery would be more Christmas themed than it ultimately was, it was really more of a setting detail and didn't bother me at all, and in fact got to play a role in a major plot point taking place on the roof. That scrape got me holding my breath a bit, definitely a suspenseful scene. Well done, Alan Bradley!

I also appreciate that the author bio at the end of each book is the same, ending with "... and currently working on the next Flavia de Luce novel." It takes away the worry that each book might be the last because I'm always already looking forward to the next installment.

Another interesting chapter with Flavia submitted by glenna on August 2, 2012, 5:06pm Those of us who know and love Flavia are always ready for a new chapter in her adventures. Each one develops her character a little better and creates a more nuanced family situation. It's always fun to read Christmas holiday books during the summer, particularly this one.

A Christmas Murdery Mystery submitted by Jen Chapin-Smith on July 13, 2013, 11:39pm Like many authors of series, Alan Bradley gives his readers a Christmas special. Don't worry, it still features murder. Indeed, this book's murder is particularly misogynistic and therefore may be too disturbing for some readers.

In this series of mysteries for young readers, Flavia de Luce, a young genius living with her father and two older sisters in the fictional English town of Bishop's Lacey (which has a shockingly high murder rate) in the 1950s, solves crime after crime. The girls' mother had died, leaving their father too sad to handle raising or even much educating his children, who are left to their own devices. Flavia has decided to teach herself chemistry and she particularly enjoys making poisons. In this book she makes her own fireworks and sets of explosions that I'm amazed didn't burn her entire house.

I very much appreciated having a young female character demonstrate so much intelligence and bravery, something I find lacking in many novels for children. Readers should note, however, that as it is set in the 1950s, the Flavia series does demonstrate the prejudices of the era, including sexism and xenophobia.

Good time submitted by cjkoho on July 25, 2014, 3:22pm I love Flavia deLuce. She is what I wish I was as an 11-year-old girl. This installment is set almost exclusively at Buckshaw, the deLuces' decaying mansion, with a film crew and most of Bishop's Lacey in attendance. An amazingly quick read and a very good time.

Love this series! submitted by volunteerchow on June 17, 2016, 5:46pm Love this series! Flavia is a wonderful detective and I am looking forward to the next installment.

Exploits plus ultra submitted by terpsichore17 on June 22, 2017, 9:08am Things I would not put past Flavia at this point: honestly flooding the picture gallery to make herself an ice rink.

Other things I should apparently not put past her: designing her own fireworks, fighting with murderers on a roof, befriending film stars, attempting to trap Santa Claus with birdlime. Delightful.