Flavia de Luce—“part Harriet the Spy, part Violet Baudelaire from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” (The New York Times Book Review)—takes her remarkable sleuthing prowess to the unexpectedly unsavory world of Canadian boarding schools in the captivating new mystery from New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley.
Banished! is how twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce laments her predicament, when her father and Aunt Felicity ship her off to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, the boarding school that her mother, Harriet, once attended across the sea in Canada. The sun has not yet risen on Flavia’s first day in captivity when a gift lands at her feet. Flavia being Flavia, a budding chemist and sleuth, that gift is a charred and mummified body, which tumbles out of a bedroom chimney. Now, while attending classes, making friends (and enemies), and assessing the school’s stern headmistress and faculty (one of whom is an acquitted murderess), Flavia is on the hunt for the victim’s identity and time of death, as well as suspects, motives, and means. Rumors swirl that Miss Bodycote’s is haunted, and that several girls have disappeared without a trace. When it comes to solving multiple mysteries, Flavia is up to the task—but her true destiny has yet to be revealed.
Acclaim for Alan Bradley’s beloved Flavia de Luce novels, winners of the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, Barry Award, Agatha Award, Macavity Award, Dilys Winn Award, and Arthur Ellis Award
“If ever there were a sleuth who’s bold, brilliant, and, yes, adorable, it’s Flavia de Luce.”—USA Today
“This idiosyncratic young heroine continues to charm.”—The Wall Street Journal
“Delightful . . . a combination of Eloise and Sherlock Holmes.”—The Boston Globe
From the Hardcover edition.
Great Main Character, Somewhat of a Weak Plot I was completely enchanted by the main character, Flavia de Luce and this book in general – at least most of the way through.
Stick to Facts Alan Bradley’s latest “Flavia de Luce” novel is the seventh book in the series featuring the now 12 year old detective. Flavia is a precocious girl who lives in a small village in post-WWII England with her father and two sisters. In As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Flavia is “banished” from her home in 1951 and sent to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, a boarding school in Canada where she meets and interacts with an interesting cast of student and faculty characters.
Follow Flavia de Luce to her new home I’d enjoyed Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce novels from the start. In Flavia de Luce we have an unparalleled young brain, logical, a remarkable chemist with a delightful vocabulary. In As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Flavia has moved from their ancestral home in England to a boarding school in Canada where she is to become independent and as a hidden goal, to learn the skills to become an agent of the government.