I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

Alan Bradley's unlikely girl detective Flavia de Luce is back in this Christmas entry I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (#127).  It's a week before Christmas and all through the house a film crew is busy setting up to shoot a movie complete with famous stars at Flavia's home in rural England, Buckshaw.  Colonel de Luce has already sold about everything of value there is in Buckshaw, and post WWII he's struggling to hold on to the huge old country house that belonged to his deceased wife.  Renting out Buckshaw as a film set should help.  Except that just as the cast and crew arrive, so does a monster snow storm.  Flavia, however, isn't going to allow the bustle in the house or the storm outside to deter her from her chemical experiments to prove or disprove the existence of Father Christmas!

After Phyllis Wyvern graciously agrees to put on performance with her co-star Desmond Duncan for the benefit of St. Tancred's Roofing Fund, the Rector arranges to transport most of the villagers to Buckshaw for the evening behind a tractor-drawn sleigh.  The evening doesn't go off quite as planned and the audience is now marooned at Buckshaw because of the storm.  Late that night after everyone is bedded down all over the house, Flavia is able to hear the soundtrack of a Phyllis Wyvern movie playing in her room and decides this would be an ideal opportunity to chat with the famous star and score points on her two older sisters.  The problem is that Phyllis won't be doing much chatting since she's been murdered.  Flavia's curiousity leads her to put her nose in where's it's obviously not wanted, and now she's oblivious to the fact that she's a target, too.

This latest entry into the Flavia de Luce collection does not disappoint.  Family secrets are slowly being revealed, relationships developed and Flavia continues to plot hideous imaginary revenge on her enemies - all involving chemistry, of course!  Flavia in my opinion grows up quite a bit in this book, and becomes a much more fully developed character.  She's always been fun in a bratty kind of way, but now we're getting some real glimpses of what drives her to do what she does.  Besides, who wouldn't love a heroine who can wax poetic about the chemical miracle that is snow, fill her thoughts with arcane chemical facts and simultaneously believe in Father Christmas?    If you haven't met Flavia yet, I would highly recommend that you start with her first adventure The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  If you're already acquainted, this mystery will be a welcome Christmas treat.