Speaking From Among the Bones by C. Alan Bradley

Reviewed by Jeanne

I admit from the outset that I am a devoted Flavia fan. The precocious twelve year old with a passion for chemistry and solving murders is one of my favorite literary characters, but sometimes this series is a hard sell.  It just sounds so—well, Nancy Drewish. It helps a bit to tell folks that the setting is an English village in the 1950s, where she lives with her emotionally distant father and two disagreeable sisters in a crumbling manor house but that still doesn’t convey the appeal of the series. Flavia has an insatiable intellectual curiosity, be it for a way to slightly poison someone or how to read her sisters’ diaries undetected.

In Speaking from Among the Bones, Flavia is enthusiastically looking forward to the disinterment of St. Tancred’s bones on the 500th anniversary of his demise.  It makes a nice diversion from the worry that her home, Buckshaw, may be sold out from under them.  Before the tomb is opened, however, Flavia discovers a much fresher corpse:  the body of Mr. Collicutt, the church organist who had gone missing.  How did he end up in Saint Tancred’s crypt? Why was he wearing a gas mask?

The writing somehow remains fresh and funny, though never silly.  Some of the descriptions of Flavia’s hair-raising underground graveyard adventures made me hold my breath for a variety of reasons. (Bradley does have a way with description!) The mysteries pile up and the solutions are ingenious.  I'll admit that for once I spotted the murderer before Flavia did, but that in no way lessened my enjoyment.  In fact, I'd venture to say that the reason she failed to figure it is a reflection of Flavia's character, which is one reason I like the series so much:  Flavia, while brilliant and seemingly sophisticated, is still a child and her analysis and interpretation of events is often from a child's point of view. She finds her old sister's romances baffling, for example, and is still naive enough to half believe some of her sisters' taunts even if she pretends not to.

You don’t have to read the series in order, but if you want to understand the full significance of the last line it might be better to start with an earlier book. Fans will be counting the days until the next book comes out.  Alas, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches  isn’t scheduled until 2014!

1. The Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie
2. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
3. A Red Herring Without Mustard
4. I Am Half Sick of Shadows
5. Speaking From Among the Bones