Speaking from Among the Bones: A Flavia de Luce Novel

I only wish Flavia was real and I was 11 again so that we could be best friends. She is one of the most awesome characters I've ever come across and, hands, down, my favorite. I love every book in this series and this one more so: Flavia matures and opens up a little bit and that development is very satisfying; a twist happens that I've suspected since the second book (finally!); maybe it's just me, but it seems as if the discussion in chemistry is somewhat less so the book feels like it moves faster. I love this whole series. As an avid mystery/murder reader, I hate the all-too-predictable endings. Alan Bradley always has me wondering which direction he will be going in and he never gives the reader what they want just because it feels right. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't. A very realistic approach to Flavia's microscopic dissection of life. And while I love all of the science and chemistry discussions, since I read late at night, I will often fall asleep during those sections. This book felt like it spent less time during those parts. I always love the cultural icon references or discussions and this one was no exception. I also really enjoyed the discussion of organ anatomy and pipes. Having played the organ before, but never an old one, I am itchy to tour somewhere where I can get my eyes on a really old, historic organ. The ambience of the books always has me hooked. And now I will be biting my fingernails until the next one comes out. aaaargh!

Flavia de Luce is so weirdly wonderful I can’t stop reading her story! Alan Bradley has the most bizarre imagination! Yikes!!!

The latest book in the Flavia de Luce mysteries continues the adventures of Flavia, a precocious 12 year old who lives with her Father and two very annoying older sisters in a decaying mansion set in a very picturesque English village circa 1950. All the ingredients of the typical British mystery are present: village people of varying eccentricity, the vicar, the doctor, the constable. The very rural setting adds a touch of feeling isolated from the world. Flavia is a budding genius in chemistry and has a laboratory "inherited" from her uncle Tarquin. Her passion is poisons. No, she's not the murderer, but she always manages to decipher and outsmart the police when odd deaths happen in Bishop's Lacey. Now, there's a name for a village! The books don't have to be read in order, but it is helpful to be acquainted with the characters, especially Flavia's family. In this particular book the church organist is found in the crypt of St. Tancred's church. Murdered, of course. There is a delicious side story of the opening of the saint's tomb and the discovery of a very strange person kept hidden away from the public by his domineering father. Not to mention a diamond of great value. As if that we're not enough, the book ends with an amazing announcement. I can't wait for the next one. However, you might find the chemistry lingo and experiments a bit obscure and daunting. I never liked chemistry class, so I might be a little biased about the fact that 12 year old Flavia is such a whiz at it.

I've read the first half of the books in the Flavia de Luce series. All of them are very good, in multiple ways, but Speaking from Among the Bones is one of the best. The more I read in the series, the more I realize what importance the author has given to the story of Flavia and her family, in addition to the mystery in each book. This book had one of the most surprising and educational mysteries, from beginning to end, and what was happening with her family made my jaw drop at the end. I'd advise anyone to read the whole series, preferably in order, and not just pick and choose among them. I have recently been rereading Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries, which I like, but I think Alan Bradley's writing in this series is quite superior to Christie's. The portrayals are gemlike, but still relate to ordinary human life.

Probablement le meilleur livre de la série, "gothique" à souhait : intrigue centrée autour de l'église et de son cimetière, de catacombes et de souterrains reliant des tombes, exhumation d'ossements, maladie dégénérative et saturnisme, chasse au trésor et amours trahies, sans parler de la tension grandissante liée à la perte toujours plus imminente de la propriété familiale et les révélations sur les personnages récurrents! Probably the best of the series, and the most "Goth" styled : the plot develops around the local church and graveyard, it is packed with tombs, underground mazes, bones & the ancient funk of corpses, plumbism and freaks, treasure hunt and betrayed love! Besides, The tension is cranking up again as Buckshaw, the family mansion is on the verge of getting sold and the book is also plenty of revelations about the regular characters of the series. A must-read!

“I wanted to cry. I also wanted to go to my laboratory and prepare an enormous batch of nitrogen triiodide with which to blow up, in a spectacular mushroom cloud of purple vapor, the world and everyone in it.” Flavia Alan Bradley has done it again. I was not expecting this one to turn out this good because never before has a mystery series kept me this hooked. Flavia is her usual precocious self; slipping out in the middle of the night, planning to poison her sisters and other people, casually lying here and there. It is a great pleasure to read about Bishop Lacey and it's inhabitants again. Upon the five-hundredth anniversary of St. Tancred’s death, the English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey is busily preparing to open its patron saint’s tomb.Everybody is excited about it and Flavia especially (the dead fascinate her). But the plans go a little awry when a murder takes place, and our amateur sleuth is at it, this time with a little competition. The Flavia series is a gem, each book delving deep into the life of people at Buckshaw. I highly recommend it.

Die Flavia-de-Luce-Serie ist seit Harry Potter die vergnüglichste Lektüre für Leser ohne Altersbeschränkung. Das gilt auch für den mittlerweile fünften Band der Reihe. Die Zutaten stimmten von Anfang an: eine ungewöhnliche elfjährige Detektivin mit einer Leidenschaft für Chemie, insbesondere für Gifte, ihre biestigen großen Schwestern, ihr aller Zuhause, ein verfallener Landsitz, ein melancholischer, chronisch klammer Vater, eine verschollene Mutter, ein typisch englisches Dorf Anfang der 1950er Jahre voller skurriler Bewohner. Dieses Mal steht die Ausgrabung des Dorfpatrons St. Tancred an und natürlich tauchen bei der Exhumierung nicht nur dessen 500 Jahre alte Gebeine auf. Bradley gibt in den fünf Bänden nach und nach immer mehr Mosaiksteine der Familiengeschichte und –geheimnisse der de Luces preis. Die Frage ist sicher berechtigt, wie weit er dieses Spiel treiben kann, bevor es langweilig wird. Noch jedoch ist es spannend und Band 5 endet gar mit einem atemberaubenden Cliffhanger. Bradley zeichnet seine Charaktere mit soviel Witz und Liebe, die Geschichten sind gleichzeitig so charmant, packend und mit interessanten Wissensdetails gespickt, nicht nur was Chemie angeht, dass die Bücher für Jugendliche wie Erwachsene gleichermaßen ein Riesenspaß sind. Und das ganz ohne Zauberei!

Great fun as theses novels always are . Great local characters abound and even Feely seemed human for once . The next novel promises to be quite momentous for the fortunes of the De Luce household . can't say why without giving away the last lines of the book.

"Speaking from Among the Bones" is Alan Bradley's fifth Flavia de Luce novel, and it is, as ever, delightful. The 500th anniversary of the death of Tancred, the local saint, is fast approaching, and the parish and some archeologists are planning to exhume the body in honour of that event. Someone, however, doesn't want the saint's bones to be disturbed, and that person is willing to go to great lengths - even murder - to prevent its occurrence. Meanwhile, it appears that Flavia's ancestral home, Buckshaw, is going to have to be sold, and where will the family go then? Not to mention the fact that older sisters Feely and Daffy are acting rather oddly lately, which mystifies our sleuth. Yes, Flavia has more than enough detective work to carry out this time around! .... If you haven't yet met Flavia de Luce, there is no time like the present. Did I mention that she's 11 years old, and the stories take place in the early 1950s, in the English countryside? Flavia's real passion is chemistry, and there's nothing she likes more than whipping up poisons in her well-appointed laboratory, except when she likes being a detective more. She's smart, bold, irrepressible and utterly adorable, and every new entry into this series is a reason to celebrate. It's best, of course, if you start at the beginning of the series ("The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie"), but I suspect that if you start with this one, you'll simply immediately go back to read the others; very highly recommended!