The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches: A Flavia de Luce Novel Author: Alan Bradley | Language: English | ISBN:
B00E2RYTJU | Format: PDF
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches: A Flavia de Luce Novel Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLEROn a spring morning in 1951, eleven-year-old chemist and aspiring detective Flavia de Luce gathers with her family at the railway station, awaiting the return of her long-lost mother, Harriet. Yet upon the train’s arrival in the English village of Bishop’s Lacey, Flavia is approached by a tall stranger who whispers a cryptic message into her ear. Moments later, he is dead, mysteriously pushed under the train by someone in the crowd. Who was this man, what did his words mean, and why were they intended for Flavia? Back home at Buckshaw, the de Luces’ crumbling estate, Flavia puts her sleuthing skills to the test. Following a trail of clues sparked by the discovery of a reel of film stashed away in the attic, she unravels the deepest secrets of the de Luce clan, involving none other than Winston Churchill himself. Surrounded by family, friends, and a famous pathologist from the Home Office—and making spectacular use of Harriet’s beloved Gipsy Moth plane,
Blithe Spirit—Flavia will do anything, even take to the skies, to land a killer.
Praise for The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches “Part Harriet the Spy, part Violet Baudelaire from Lemony Snicket’s
A Series of Unfortunate Events, Flavia is a pert and macabre pragmatist.”
—The New York Times Book Review “[Alan] Bradley’s award winning Flavia de Luce series . . . has enchanted readers with the outrageous sleuthing career of its precocious leading lady. . . . This latest adventure contains all the winning elements of the previous books.”
—Library Journal (starred review)“Bradley’s latest Flavia de Luce novel reaches a new level of perfection as it shows the emotional turmoil and growth of a girl who has always been older than her years and yet is still a child. The mystery is complex and very personal this time, reaching into the past Flavia never knew about. . . . These are astounding, magical books not to be missed.”
—RT Book Reviews (Top Pick) “Excellent . . . Flavia retains her droll wit. . . . The solution to a murder is typically neat, and the conclusion sets up future books nicely.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “It’s hard to resist either the genre’s pre-eminent preteen sleuth or the hushed revelations about her family.”
—Kirkus Reviews “Flavia . . . is as fetching as ever; her chatty musings and her combination of childish vulnerability and seemingly boundless self-confidence haven’t changed a bit.”
—Booklist 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 “Irresistibly appealing.”
—The New York Times Book Review, on
A Red Herring Without Mustard “Original, charming, devilishly creative.”
—Bookreporter,
on
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows “Delightful and entertaining.”
—San Jose Mercury News, on
Speaking from Among the BonesFrom the Hardcover edition.- File Size: 1546 KB
- Print Length: 338 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0385344058
- Publisher: Delacorte Press (January 14, 2014)
- Sold by: Random House LLC
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00E2RYTJU
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,241 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Historical - #10
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Canadian Detectives - #23
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical
- #9
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Historical - #10
in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Canadian Detectives - #23
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Mystery > Historical
I'm seriously at a loss for words about how to write a review for this book. The book reads as if this is the final book in the series and that has left me in a kind of shock. I thought Flavia would go on for years and years because at this point in her fictional life she isn't even twelve years old yet. Maybe I'm wrong. Goodness knows I hope I'm wrong! Maybe a new direction is coming. Whatever it is, I just hope Alan Bradley keeps this story alive.
This is the book in the series that is all about Harriet. Have you ever been so involved with the characters in a book series that what happens to them can make you cry? Sometimes the happenings are good, sometimes bad, but they can still bring tears to your eyes. I had to put this book down and walk away from it for a while because it moved me so much. And yet, I cannot possibly say in this review what it was that touched me so much. That would spoil the story for you and I will not do that to you. Experience it for yourself, then you will know what I'm talking about. But, please, don't begin reading the series with this book because that would absolutely spoil all the other books for you. This crisis has been building up throughout five previous novels and jumping into the series in this spot would be a shame. Instead, start at the beginning, with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery (Flavia de Luce Mysteries). Here in book six Flavia is still the same impetuous, headstrong, independent young girl who uses chemistry and intellect to investigate mysteries around her home and English village in the idyllic seeming early years following World War II.
In this book, Alan Bradley has written the conclusion of a chapter in the life of Flavia de Luce, the preteen genius whose nosing-around in various homicides in the 1950's English village of Bishops Lacey has been the meat of the previous five books in the de Luce series. Always simmering on the back burner in the previous books has been the drama of the de Luce family's decaying fortunes after the disappearance of Flavia's mother during a mysterious expedition in Tibet. In this book, Bradley brings the family matter to the foreground and neglects the "English countryside mystery" angle almost entirely.
The book plays to several of Bradley's strengths. His wonderful writing style is in full flower, more what one thinks of as literature than as genre fare (though that distinction is, of course, artificial), and he perfectly captures the emotional tone of the terribly reserved, terribly British de Luce family as they are shattered with sorrow but too proper to reach out to one another. This is in many ways a sad book, and Bradley's depiction of the sadness of the de Luce family is both particular to them and powerfully universal.
The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches works as a study in mood and tone. But I'm not so sure it works as a novel. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who hasn't read the other de Luce books -- it wraps up a lot of threads from those books but it would be nearly incomprehensible standing on its own. Nor does it work as a mystery, not that Bradley was really trying. So this book is only for de Luce completists.
But even as a de Luce completist, I was somewhat dissatisfied.
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