Book #24: Speaking from Among the Bones

I've slacked, I finished this book last week and am only just getting around to writing this review. Book number 24, and book number 5 finished in the Flavia de Luce mystery series!

After the Christmas escapades, things seem to have quietened down a bit in the village of Bishop's Lacey. In fact, there's not even been a murder for at least 3 months! What ever did the police do with themselves in all this time (not much given that an 11 year old has thus far solved all the grizzly murders in the past year)... Crazy times! It seems that with the murder at the house, the family's financial situation wasn't solved, and as a result, things are as precarious as ever, with the house even being put up for sale during the book.

The murder itself is discovered very early on in the book... hooray! And once again it ties in nicely with another plot, this time regarding the exhumation of the bones of a saint buried in the crypt of the church. Flavia once again finds herself embroiled in the investigation, by discovering the body, through to its eventual solving.

In this book, Flavia is not alone in her investigation... there's an old friend of her fathers who is in town interested in the seeds that are about to be exhumed from the saint's tomb, however is this all he is doing. Flavia quickly deduces that he is a private investigator, and they work together to piece together the clues. However whilst she doesn't hold all the cards, Flavia does seem to be streets ahead when it comes to solving the case.

Outside of the murder investigation, is the apparent upcoming nuptials of Flavia's eldest sister 'Feely', who has been courting the affections of most of Bishop's Lacey's young men since the first book. How will this change the dynamic between the sisters? There seemed to be a bit more of a sisterly bond forming between Flavia and her sisters in this book... less of them devising schemes to torture her, more sisterly bickering and moments of pure sisterly love. I do hope this develops more in the next few books.

Once again, the discovery of the murderers puts Flavia in some sort of mortal peril, where are the police in all of this!?! But at the end of the day, she survives to solve another murder! It must be said that the police around Bishop's Lacey must feel so incompetent when an 11 year old manages to solve these complex murders. I'd be pretty fuming if I were them. However there is a lovely understanding and relationship that I can see developing between Flavia and the Inspector. Certainly there's moments where you can see that he is trying his hardest to keep Flavia from coming to too much harm. He certainly is more of a father figure at times than Flavia's actual father who once again seems so far detached from his daughters that he doesn't know what's going on half the time.

However, he delivers the killer line at the end of the book that led to my "WHAT THE..." moment. If I'd had the next book I wouldn't had to start it straight away, because that was a cliffhanger worthy of Florence and Neville's will they/won't they at the end of Death in Paradise! However I've had to order book 6 to find out what's going to happen!

Storywise, this one flowed nicely, filling in more elements of Flavia's family story, and exploring new areas of the environs around Bishop's Lacey. Gladys was back!! Hooray! There was the usual with and charm I've become accustomed to with Alan Bradley's books. I can't wait to read book 6 when it arrives!

Speaking from Among the Bones: 3cm

Total read: 24 books, 72cm

Total left to read: 121cm