Last week was National DNA Day! Celebrate the discovery of DNA and all of its practical uses by picking up up some suspenseful stories featuring DNA technology!
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The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place, Flavia de Luce Mystery #9 by Alan Bradley is the third or fourth of the Flavia books that I have read (and yes, I admit to reading them out of order, as I frequently do when reading a series that I enjoy.)
Precocious and morbid, Flavia de Luce is much like Wednesday on The Addam’s Family; obsessed with death, decay, and poisons. But unlike the Addam’s Family, the rest of the de Luce family does not share Flavia’s interests. Although Dogger, her father’s manservant, has developed into quite a sleuth himself. Flavia sees herself as a chemist, and an accomplished one at that. She has helped the local constabulary solve several mysteries before this one.
In this installment, the de Luce family is away from home for a quiet holiday following a family tragedy. Like many an amateur sleuth, Flavia stumbles over bodies everywhere she goes. This time, she discovers one in the river, the apparently drowned man rising to the surface as she and the family are out for a boat ride.
There is a circus in town with performers and carnies, and Flavia also makes the acquaintance of the undertaker’s young son, an amateur aerial photographer. In addition, there are a number of other interesting and unique townspeople to spice up the plot.
The Flavia de Luce books are a lot of fun if you aren’t put off by someone who is so cheerfully morbid.
*Note that the Amazon Summary copied below the graphic may contain spoilers.
“Think of Huckleberry Finn,” Daffy had said. “Who knows, Flavia? You might even be fortunate enough to find a dead body in a floating house.”
Alan Bradley, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place
Summary
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 against her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself as Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavia’s grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body.
If anything could take Flavia’s mind off sorrow, it is solving a murder—although one that may lead the young sleuth to an early grave.
