As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Poor Flavia de Luce!  In As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust (#474), the seventh in Alan Bradley's marvelous mystery series featuring his intrepid twelve year old chemical savant, Flavia's been exiled to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in far-off Toronto to continue her education in her mother's footsteps.  Her mother's education included far more than the ordinary subjects; she was performing unheralded and mysterious services for her country when her plane went down in the Himalayas ten years previously.  Flavia is her chosen successor to don that same mantle.

She doesn't care much for being handed over like an unwanted package to the Rainsmiths, who will take charge of her on the trip overseas.  Dr. Rainsmith, after all, is on the Board of Governors for Miss Bodycote's school.  While Flavia and the Rainsmiths are all glad to see the back of each other at journeys' end, her first night such a long way away from home is interrupted by a another student beating on her.  When Miss Fawlthorne, the formidable head of the Academy, comes to investigate the noise, any hope of keeping the midnight visit a secret is lost when Patricia Ann Collingwood tumbles out of the chimney in Flavia's room, followed by a corpse wrapped in a Union Jack.

Who is the victim?  Are the tales Collingwood related to Flavia about missing students true?  And why aren't the police following up after their initial visit?  There's a lot more going on at Miss Bodycote's than meets the eye, and Flavia is left to muddle through her mysterious training on her own with only a single letter from Dogger (with an enclosure from her awful cousin Undine!) to cheer her up in her misery.  Flavia being Flavia, she keeps a stiff upper lip while struggling to untangle the mystery that has fallen into her lap, while she realizes that absence does make the heart grow fonder in terms of her family and Buckshaw.  Yaroo!

If you haven't discovered Flavia de Luce for yourself yet, do start with the first book in this series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  She is definitely no angel, but so much fun to read about!