As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is out of her element in this, the 7th installment, of Alan Bradley's series. The start of the novel has her on a ship, mid-way across the Atlantic, bound for Canada, where she will be starting her education at Miss Bodycote's Female Academy. She barely has time to settle into her new home when a body comes tumbling down from the chimney, wrapped in the Union Jack and whose head has been replaced with a different skull. Her homesickness is gone at the prospect of a mystery to solve, and she gets right to work. Her investigation reveals students gone missing, a peek into the secret society in which her mother was a member, and a teacher with a murderous past.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Flavia's personality was just what we've come to know and love - she's precocious, quick on her feet, and not afraid of anything. The development of the other characters - her classmates, teachers, and even the headmistress - were all wonderful and it was easy to distinguish one from another. Miss Bodycote's school and the surrounding city are described in wonderful detail, right down to the general store run by the woman who is entertained by Flavia's “charming” accent.

I was a bit disappointed, however, in how disjointed this book felt from the rest of the series. Without access to her attic chemistry laboratory, Flavia finds herself without the solace of chemistry for most of the book. The mystery itself was sometimes illogical - Flavia determines the body must have spent a significant amount of time stuffed up in the chimney, but how would someone have used the fireplace without it being noticed? I'll also freely admit that I missed Buckshaw! The characters, the settings, dependable Dogger and Gertrude...the story arcs that had been built up over the series were seemingly abandoned, and this new setting didn't feel quite like home. Things were touched upon briefly during this novel that I wished had been expanded upon, namely Harriet's time at the school and her participation in the Nides, the secret society that Flavia is there to become a part of as well. Secrets were not elaborated on, and I hope that Bradley plans on returning to these topics for more detail.

In the end, I love this series and so I enjoyed the book. I can't wait, however, for Flavia to be back home at Buckshaw, where she belongs.

(I received an advanced copy from NetGalley for review.)