NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The worlds greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth (The Seattle Times), Flavia de Luce, returns in a twisty mystery novel from award-winning author Alan Bradley. In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days. For a needed escape, Dogger, the loyal family servant, suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavias grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body. If anything could take Flavias mind off sorrow, it is solving a murderalthough one that may lead the young sleuth to an early grave. Praise for The Graves a Fine and Private Place Flavia [is] irrepressible, precocious and indefatigable. . . . A whole new chapter of Flavias life opens as she approaches adolescence. Will she become the Madame Curie of crime?Bookreporter Outstanding . . . As usual, Bradley makes his improbable series conceit work and relieves the plots inherent darkness with clever humor.Publishers Weekly (starred review) Theres only one Flavia. . . . Series fans will anticipate the details of this investigation, along with one last taste of Flavias unorthodox family life.Library Journal (starred review) Bradleys unquenchable heroine brings the most complicated case I had ever come across to a highly satisfying conclusion, with the promise of still brighter days ahead.Kirkus Reviews
- | Author: Alan Bradley
- | Publisher: Bantam
- | Publication Date: Aug 28, 2018
- | Number of Pages: 400 pages
- | Language: English
- | Binding: Paperback
- | ISBN-10: 034554000X
- | ISBN-13: 9780345540003