Book Review: Speaking from Among the Bones

Speaking from Among the Bones is the fifth installment in Canadian author Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series – you know, the books staring 11 year old Flavia de Luce, chemistry genius and crime solving force to be reckoned with, a more than precocious kid who resents being treated her age and has endured countless tortures at the hands of her two elder sisters, Daffy and Feely. Flavia has so much charm and character and is wise beyond her years, but she is still a child, and her feelings and reactions to goings on within her family constantly betray her.  Her mother is missing – presumed dead – and has been since Flavia was a year old.  Her father avoids family dramas and disengages from his daughters behind stamp collecting magazines.  The family’s manservant, Dogger, suffers from severe PTSD due to being a prisoner of war during WWII.  And as I mentioned, Flavia’s sisters are cruel and cold towards her, though she always seems to get them back somehow.

This newest book has our typical charming Flavia doing what she does best: outsmarting adults at their own game while charming them to bits with her finely honed manipulation tactics – and solving the crime, which in this case involves the  murder of the church organist and the theft of a precious stone from the tomb of the church’s patron saint.

But if you’re a fan of the series so far, there is an awful lot more to look forward to in reading this book – and if you’re not a fan of the series so far, you’d better get on the bandwagon because Alan Bradley ramps things up in this novel, setting us all up for a hell of a ride to come.

Because it’s not only the most compelling mystery Flavia has dealt with to date, this book has a lot going on behind the scenes that is most interesting.  For instance, the eldest of the three sisters, Feely, is getting married, and this will be important in the future because we’ll not only get a new character, but we’re going to see some character development on the part of the whole de Luce family, I think.  We see it already in the scene where things thaw out between Flavia and Feely after Flavia scares away a town gossip monger who comes to see Feely.  After this incident, Feely actually hugs Flavia – and we have a truce.  Feely is growing up, and that changes the family dynamics.  Also showing change and character development is Flavia’s father, who waits for her after one of her nighttime prowls around the village gathering clues.  He almost shows feelings towards her by telling her that he believes she is a genius…but he stops short.  But that was a big change for him.

Also playing into things are a few other occurences of note.  The family stately home, that’s been their ancestral digs for eons, named Buckshaw, is up for sale, throwing Flavia into a world of uncertainty.  We get more clues about Flavia’s mother, and we have the introduction of a new character, Adam Sowerby a man who has a keen interest in the “seeds of antiquity” and has a special interest in the tomb of St. Tancred, the patron saint of the village church.

I liked all this secondary plot stuff a lot because it gave the book so much more richness and emotional appeal.  And I have to say that by far this is the best written book Bradley has produced in this series.  I laughed out loud so many times at the hilarious descriptions of objects, settings, and people Flavia observed in her journey.  Here is one of my favourites, the description of a house full of mystery Flavia encounters in her travels:

“…There was no doubt that the dark Gothic pile ahead of me was Bogmore Hall.  A crazy conglomeration of spiky gables gave it the look of a bundle of ancient lances shoved carelessly, points uppermost, into an oversized umbrella stand.”

I love it!  And the book is full of gems like this!

The kicker is that this book ends with one whopping cliff hanger.  That was frustrating, but it just made me all the more eager for the next book in the series.  Flavia is getting older – she’s nearly 12 now – and there are huge changes on the horizon for her.  I can’t wait for the next installment!