Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

July 4, 2016
Bestseller Bradley’s lively eighth Flavia de Luce novel (after 2015’s As Chimney Sweeps Come to Dust) finds the preadolescent chemist and detective back at Buckshaw, her crumbling family estate in England, after being dishonorably discharged from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada. Her beloved father’s sickness taints homecoming, leaving moody Flavia to ward off a flock of pesky sisters. Welcome distraction comes when Flavia stumbles on the body of a local wood-carver strapped upside-down to a wooden contraption, flanked by a stack of children’s books by famed nonsense-versifier Oliver Inchbald. Flavia, who’s delighted to investigate under the eye of her old friend Inspector Hewitt, uncovers a backstory to the murder involving a man devoured by seagulls and a madcap Auntie Loo who dies scuba diving. Only the somewhat arbitrary final reveal disappoints. Child detectives can irritate, but Flavia’s a winner, a mix of sparky irreverence and wrathful propriety who evades the preciousness endemic to the species. Agent: Denise Bukowski, Bukowski Agency.

October 31, 2016
Those who’ve delighted in the seven previous 1950s-era mysteries narrated by precocious British preteen Flavia de Luce are sure to enjoy her eloquent if sometimes snarky new account. Returning to her ramshackle family home in Bishop’s Lacey, England, at Christmastime, the budding chemist, poison expert, and self-styled sleuth is dismayed to find her father has been hospitalized with pneumonia, visitors not permitted. While attempting to lift her spirits and avoid her annoying sisters and cousin, she stumbles upon the corpse of the town’s woodcarver, crucified upside down. Suddenly feeling “gloriously alive,” she sets out, determined to bring the murderer to justice, armed with a logical mind and a major clue­—the first edition of a popular children’s book. Reader Entwistle has been the voice of Flavia and her family, friends, and enemies for all eight audios for one reason: she’s the perfect choice. Not just capable of credibly imitating the voice of youth, she’s able to mold it to fit the mercurial moods of Flavia, from, in this case, worrying about her father to experiencing elation when uncovering new details, some as bizarre as a report of a man gobbled up by seagulls. A Delacorte hardcover.