I am Half-Sick of Shadows

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Call Number: BOCD Mystery
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	BOCD Mystery	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Unabridged.
Compact discs.
Read by Jayne Entwistle.
"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!"

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A Christmas Murder Mystery submitted by Jen Chapin-Smith on July 13, 2013, 11:42pm 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.

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. This time it is a famous actress staying in Buckshaw, Flavia's ancestral home.

The girls' mother died years ago, leaving their father too sad to handle raising or even much educating his children, who are left to their own devices. It also leaves the family very short on money, which is why the father has rented out his home to a film company.

Flavia has been teaching 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, classism and xenophobia.

The title is a line from "Romeo and Juliet," which the cast of the movie being shot at Flavia's home put on for the benefit of the local townsfolk.