As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Starred review from November 24, 2014
Set in 1951, Bradley’s exceptional seventh series whodunit (after 2014’s The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches) takes Flavia de Luce, a preteen with an interest in poisons, from her family home in Bishop’s Lacey, England, to Canada, where she is to attend her late mother’s alma mater, Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy. On Flavia’s very first night there, a fellow student, P.A. Collingwood, bursts into her room and reveals that three other girls have disappeared. When the head of school, Miss Fawlthorne (aka the Hangman’s Mistress), knocks at Flavia’s door, Collingwood flees up the chimney, dislodging a mummified corpse and detaching its skull. This intriguing setup only gets better, and Bradley makes Miss Bodycote’s a suitably Gothic setting for Flavia’s sleuthing. Through it all, her morbid narrative voice continues to charm (e.g., “If you’re anything like me, you adore rot. It is pleasant to reflect on the fact that decay and decomposition are what make the world go round”). Agent: Denise Bukowski, Bukowski Agency.

January 1, 2015
Flavia de Luce knows, rationally, that she's being sent away to her mother's old school, Miss Bodycote's Female Academy, in Canada. To a 12-year-old, leaving her beloved English home of Buckshaw feels like banishment. She's heartened when a corpse crashes down from the chimney in her room on her first night at Miss Bodycote'sFlavia has a remarkable affinity for the deadand by private tutoring in the gentle arts of mayhem from headmistress Miss Fawlthorne and middle-of-the-night chemistry training from acquitted murderer Mrs. Bannerman. But as Flavia puzzles over the identity of the body, not to mention the fate of the three girls gone missing from the academy, she is warned repeatedly to trust no one, not knowing who belongs to the ultrasecret society that uses the code words pheasant sandwiches. This seventh Flavia de Luce outingof the 10 the author has promisedmaintains the high standards Bradley set from the start, when he found himself hijacked by his precocious and fearless young protagonist with her limitless enthusiasm and staggering intellect. Another treat for readers of all ages.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)