Review: Speaking from among the Bones

The Flavia de Luce series keeps getting better and better. This book was the best yet in the series, and it finds Flavia investigating the death of the parish organist. St. Tancred's parish is digging up the remains of their patron saint, and an old corpse is right up Flavia's street (literally and figuratively). When a much newer dead body turns up in the old tomb Flavia is on the case, with her chemistry lab at her service. Flavia spends plenty of time mucking around in the grave dirt to find the killer.

Like other books in the series this one is fast-moving with quirky characters. Bradley continues to develop the de Luce family, and Flavia continues to try and be accepted as a mature colleague by the vicar and the police. Bradley drops a huge bomb at the end of the book. The cliffhanger ending is tremendous. With one final line Bradley has basically ensured that I will go out and buy the next book immediately upon its publication. Well played, Mr. Bradley. I can't wait to see where this is going.

Alan Bradley, Speaking from among the Bones (Delacorte, 2013) ISBN: 0385344031