Review of Death Comes to Pemberley, by P. D. James

Austenalia, Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

Death Comes to Pemberley

by P. D. James

Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2011. 291 pages.
Starred Review

When I heard that a stellar and distinguished British mystery writer was going to tackle a mystery sequel to Pride and Prejudice, I knew I had to read it! I’ve read a lot of Jane Austen knock-offs and love them (see the Austenalia category), but not all the authors were ones I’ve heard of before.

I will confess that I’d never read a P. D. James book before this one. I’d long meant to, and saw a movie based on Children of Men, but have never quite gotten around to it. Still, I was surprised when I liked the Pride and Prejudice sequel aspects of this book more than I did the mystery.

Before I criticize, let me say that I loved reading this book. It was a delight, and I recommend it to all other Jane Austen fans. I’m going to point out some ways it wasn’t perfect, but it was still very very good and tremendously enjoyable. So please keep that in mind!

I do think I liked it more than Carrie Bebris’s Jane Austen sequels. In those, I didn’t really appreciate the paranormal element she brought in, and P. D. James did a better job imitating Jane Austen’s style. (Though I thoroughly enjoyed Carrie Bebris’s books as well.)

I admit I was delighted with her choice of victim and suspect. P. D. James brings back most of the important characters from Pride and Prejudice. The Prologue nicely sets the stage, and fits absolutely well with what Jane Austen said at the end of her book about how her characters’ lives continued.

A couple things I would have liked to be different:

Preparations for a ball at Pemberley are interrupted by a murder. Shucks. It would have been fun to get to read about a ball at Pemberley.

Georgiana is considering two suitors, but her choice is settled very easily. Some romance and romantic scenes and misunderstanding and revelation would have been nicely in the spirit of Jane Austen.

My biggest objection is that the mystery was not solved by our main characters. When all has been resolved, Darcy is simply informed of the resolution. Sure, we had some clues and some suspicions, but not really enough to solve the crime, and it ended up pretty much being luck that let the truth come out. I would have liked it much better if Elizabeth had solved the crime, coming up with the crucial information, or, next best, Mr. Darcy.

I also was kind of annoyed by an ending talk between Elizabeth and Darcy. They discussed things that they’d already cleared up at the end of Pride and Prejudice. This was unnecessary.

However, some things I loved:

She really got the spirit of the characters and the society. Without petty tricks like imitating Pride and Prejudice‘s first line.

She brought back so many characters from the original book. Even Mr. Bennett visits for awhile, just as Jane Austen mentioned he was wont to do.

She made the legal process at that time, with magistrates and the inquest and trial process, very clear and easy to understand.

Most of all, I felt like I was spending time with my beloved characters again. Definitely a treat for fans of Pride and Prejudice!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/death_comes_to_pemberley.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Friendship Doll, by Kirby Larson

Children's Fiction Review, Historical 0

The Friendship Doll

by Kirby Larson

Delacorte Press, 2011. 201 pages.

The Friendship Doll tells the story of an exquisite Japanese doll, Miss Kanagawa, sent to the United States in 1928 along with fifty-seven other dolls in a gesture of friendship. The book tells about four girls whom Miss Kanagawa encounters over a period of years. All the girls learn a small lesson from the doll, and the doll herself becomes less haughty and learns about love.

I was put off a bit by the very first story. Bunny is pouty because the mean girl Belle Roosevelt gets to give a speech to welcome the doll, even though Bunny could do it better. The doll convinces Bunny not to play a mean trick herself. It just all seemed a little petty, right from the start. Perhaps that was intentional, so we could see some growth in Miss Kanagawa herself.

I did warm up more to the stories of the other girls. Kirby Larson walks a thin line, but stays on the right side of preachiness, even though the girls learn lessons. But it’s delicately done. The girls Miss Kanagawa encounters are all quite different from one another, and I found myself enjoying each adventure a little more than the one before.

However, I do have one peeve with the second adventure, during the Depression. This could be a spoiler for this particular story, so be forewarned.

Here’s the thing. Lois dreams of flying some day like Amelia Earhart and Bessie Coleman. When she gets to go to the World’s Fair with Aunt Eunice, she wants nothing more than to go on a rocket ride zooming two hundred feet above the ground over the lagoon. On the day of the Fair, she has a quarter to spend how she wishes. Then she even gets permission from Aunt Eunice to go on the rockets. But she sees Miss Kanagawa and gets a message from her: A good friend gives our heart wings. She decides instead to buy some exquisite dollhouse furniture for her friend Mabel who couldn’t come.

Okay, call me selfish, but I really really wish Lois had gone on the ride! The reason I’m mentioning it is this: Isn’t that what girls are so often encouraged to do? Enjoying the moment is selfish — you should buy something for someone else.

Now, I lived in Europe for ten years. I learned after awhile that buying a souvenir for someone else tends to not mean a whole lot to them. Because a souvenir from a place they haven’t been doesn’t have any memories tied to it. But even more than that, why can’t Lois take the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity being offered her and enjoy it to the hilt, without having to feel guilty that her friend can’t share it, too? And what if Mabel doesn’t even like what she picks out? But she’s supposed to like it because Lois sacrificed her dream to give it. Isn’t that a recipe for resentment between them?

Anyway, that’s my take on the admittedly artificial situation. But I should add that this would make a fabulous mother-daughter discussion. What do you think?

I wasn’t crazy about this book, but I did enjoy it. And I think younger girls, especially ones who still love dolls, will find it enchanting. There are some fascinating historical details as well as lots of fuel for discussion.

kirbylarson.com
randomhouse.com/kids

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/friendship_doll.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a book I got at ALA Annual Conference and had signed by the author.

Review of Code Name Verity, by Elizabeth Wein

Adventure, Historical, Starred Review, Suspense, Teen Fiction Review 0

Code Name Verity

by Elizabeth Wein

Hyperion, New York, 2012. 343 pages.
Starred Review

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. For me, this is the Year of Escalating Greatness. For the Newbery: First I read Wonder, by R. J. Palacio, and hoped it would win. Then I read The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, and hoped it would win. Then I read Summer of the Gypsy Moths, by Sara Pennypacker, and hoped it would win. Recently, I read Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale, and now I’m hoping it will win.

For the Printz Award, it hasn’t been so drawn out. I read The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green, and was sure I’d found the book I want to win next year’s award. But now I’ve read Code Name Verity. I simply can’t imagine another book surpassing this one this year.

(Mind you, I want all my past favorites to win Honor, and won’t even be too upset if they end up taking the prize. But wow, this book is good!)

I already was a big fan of Elizabeth Wein. I’ve read all of her Aksum books, set in old Africa, and knew that her writing is something special. But I wondered about a book set during World War II. That seemed something altogether different.

And this book is different. There’s still the flavor of her wonderful storytelling ability, but the story, set in France and England during World War II, is nothing like ancient Africa. But every single bit as compelling.

Here’s how the book begins:

I AM A COWARD.

I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was. I have always been good at pretending. I spent the first twelve years of my life playing at the Battle of Stirling Bridge with my five big brothers — and even though I am a girl, they let me be William Wallace, who is supposed to be one of our ancestors, because I did the most rousing battle speeches. God, I tried hard last week. My God, I tried. But now I know I am a coward. After the ridiculous deal I made with SS-Hauptsturmführer von Linden, I know I am a coward. And I’m going to give you anything you ask, everything I can remember. Absolutely Every Last Detail.

Here is the deal we made. I’m putting it down to keep it straight in my own mind. “Let’s try this,” the Hauptsturmführer said to me. “How could you be bribed?” And I said I wanted my clothes back.

It seems petty, now. I am sure he was expecting my answer to be something defiant — “Give me Freedom” or “Victory” — or something generous, like “Stop toying with that wretched French Resistance laddie and give him a dignified and merciful death.” Or at leaszt something more directly connected to my present circumstance, like “Please let me go to sleep” or “Feed me” or “Get rid of this sodding iron rail you have kept tied against my spine for the past three days.” But I was prepared to go sleepless and starving and upright for a good while yet if only I didn’t have to do it in my underwear — rather foul and damp at times, and SO EMBARRASSING. The warmth and dignity of my flannel skirt and woolly sweater are worth far more to me now than patriotism or integrity.

Queenie, which is what she calls herself in the narrative, draws things out. She tells the story of how she entered the war effort, but she tells it from the perspective of her best friend, Maddie Brodatt. Maddie is the pilot who crash landed the plane that brought Queenie into France after Queenie parachuted out of it. They have shown Queenie pictures of the burned plane and ruined cockpit.

Now, the reader has to wonder how much truth Queenie is giving the Nazis in this narrative, being read immediately by them. But the reader never doubts her firm and unquenching affection for Maddie, the girl who loved to fly. Maddie gets more and more opportunities in a men’s world, culminating in the chance to fly Queenie into France. Too bad it ended in a crash and a capture.

I don’t want to say one bit more about the book’s plot except that I am reminded of something Megan Whalen Turner said when she was speaking at the Horn Book-Simmons Colloquium. She said that she feels she has failed if her readers read her books only once.

With Code Name Verity I honestly caught something in the section I just quoted to you that had gone right by me the first time around. I am absolutely going to be rereading this book very soon to see the many, many things that I will look at differently the second time around.

Wow! All right, already! Just read it!

elizabethwein.com
un-requiredreading.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/code_name_verity.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on my own book, ordered from Amazon.com

Review of Maisie Dobbs, by Jacqueline Winspear

Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

Maisie Dobbs

by Jacqueline Winspear

Penguin Books, 2003. 294 pages.
Starred Review

A big thank you to Liz B of A Chair, a Fireplace, and a Tea Cozy for bringing this book to my attention.

This book is about Maisie Dobbs, a brilliant girl who was discovered studying on her own and sent to Cambridge by the upper-class family where she was serving. Now, between the wars, she is a Psychologist and Investigator. Her first case is to find out if a wife is straying — but ends up focusing on a Retreat for soldiers scarred in the Great War.

The middle of the book tells how Maisie got her start and how she interrupted her education to serve as a nurse during the war, and how she got her own scars.

Liz’s review is excellent, so I don’t have a lot to add. But one thing that was interesting to me was how much of the book paralleled another book I just read, The Return of Captain John Emmett, by Elizabeth Speller. Both were set about ten years after World War I, in England. Both involved a supposed haven for wounded or psychologically damaged soldiers. Both had things happen during the war that left lifelong scars to those involved. However, I have to admit that Maisie Dobbs is much more pleasant reading, and didn’t go into nearly as much detail about the awful things that happened during the war. The protagonist in The Return of Captain John Emmett is jaded himself about what he saw and just going through the motions of life. Maisie, on the other hand, has been through some awful experiences, but she is using her clever mind to help people and make things right. This book fits the description of a “cozy” mystery, while the other one had too much grim reality to fit that category. However, you do get the same feeling of what things were like after World War I, and how everything was poised to change.

I’ll definitely be reading more books in this series. Maisie Dobbs is someone I enjoy spending time with.

www.penguin.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/maisie_dobbs.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of The Ionia Sanction, by Gary Corby

Adventure, Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Starred Review 0

The Ionia Sanction

by Gary Corby

Minotaur Books, New York, 2011. 335 pages.
Starred Review

Here’s a second mystery set during the dawn of democracy in Athens. In this one, our hero Nicolaos is sent to Ephesus in Ionia to retrieve a letter stolen from a murdered man.

This book also begins with a dead body. The first line is still pretty striking:

“I ran my finger along one foot of the corpse, then the other, making the body swing with a lazy, uncaring rhythm.”

The proxenos for Ephesus in Athens (kind of the opposite of an ambassador; an Athenian with an interest in Ephesus who handles Ephesian business) has been murdered. A letter he received from Ephesus has been stolen. Nico has to go to Ephesus with a mission to find out what was in the letter. The murdered man’s son would like his father cleared of treason while Nico’s at it. And the woman he loves, Diotima, is now a priestess at the Artemsion in Ephesus.

This is no cozy armchair mystery. There are some gritty details and some sexual misadventures, but they do seem to reflect life in that time period. I had known, for example, that impalement was used to kill people, but I’d never before understood what a truly horrible form of death it was. The author explains in his note at the end that crucifixion was introduced later as a more humane alternative to impalement.

Nicolaos travels to Ephesus and Magnesia, where he meets the famed hero of Athens, Themistocles, who was later exiled as a traitor and now enjoys the favor of the Great King of Persia. There’s another death, and Nico has to figure out how they all tie together, as well as fulfill his commission from Pericles in Athens.

The mystery is the sort where you don’t necessarily have the clues to solve the case yourself, but you do enjoy the adventure of watching Nicolaos come to the solution, with lots of help from Diotima.

All in all, despite some moments that made me wince, this book gives a fun story, an adventure with lots of historical details and a strong dose of humor. Nicolaos is something of a bumbler. The more pleased he is with himself, the more confident he is, the more you can be sure he’s going to fail.

Since Nico’s visiting Persia, he naturally looks at their lives with the eyes of an Athenian. This makes an entertaining way of telling the reader the things that were normal in Athens. For example, one character convinces Nico that wearing trousers is a more comfortable way to ride a horse.

Reading the extended author’s note at the end of the book made me all the more impressed with it. Based on the historical record, everything in this book could actually have happened. As in the first book, The Pericles Commission, the list of characters at the front highlights people who are actual historical figures, about half of the list. My favorite, of course, is still Nicolaos’ annoying little brother, Socrates, though he only shows up at the start of this book.

If you read these books, you’ll never think of ancient history the same way again. The Athenian proxenos for Ephesus is murdered. Nicolaos goes to Ephesus to investigate. Highjinks ensue. Now I know what really happened.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/ionia_sanction.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Wonderstruck, by Brian Selznick

Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Wonderstruck

A Novel in Words and Pictures

by Brian Selznick

Scholastic Press, New York, 2011. 637 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Battle of the Kids’ Books Contender

Brian Selznick did something amazing with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, telling half the story with pictures. The pictures were so excellent, he won the Caldecott Medal for his work.

Now, with Wonderstruck, Brian Selznick has created another work that will fill readers with wonder. The form is very similar to Hugo Cabret, but the book has a logic and beauty of its own. In both books, the writing didn’t draw me in, didn’t make me feel for the characters as much as I wanted to. However, Wonderstruck pulled me in anyway with the characters. Where, to me personally, Hugo Cabret felt like a clever puzzle, Wonderstruck is a brilliant puzzle wrapped up in a heart-warming story and fascinating historical details.

In Hugo Cabret, the detailed pictures evoked the silent films the story was about. In Wonderstruck, we’ve got two separate stories going on. The written narrative is set in 1977, beginning in Gunflint Lake, Minnesota, and the story told through the pictures is set in 1927, beginning in Hoboken, New Jersey. The story in 1927 is about a deaf girl, so silent pictures, like the silent movies she loves, are appropriate for her story. The two stories converge in New York City at the end of the book.

The author’s Acknowledgements at the end reveal the vast amount of research he did and his incredible attention to historical detail. This book is an amazing work of art in the way he wove together words and pictures, but also two separate stories into one. He even makes the pacing the same as he tells the stories. When one child is running away, so does the other. When one child is discovering things, so does the other.

I do love having Brian Selznick’s books there to offer to children. They look like a big, daunting book — but with all the pictures, can be read quite quickly. So even reluctant readers can read an “Award Winner” and thoroughly enjoy it.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/wonderstruck.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on an Advance Reader Copy I got at ALA Annual Conference.

Review of Dead End in Norvelt, by Jack Gantos

Award Winners, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Starred Review 0

Dead End in Norvelt

by Jack Gantos

Farrar Straus Giroux, New York, 2011. 341 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Newbery Medal

It’s refreshing to read a book set in the Sixties that is not about the Cuban Missile Crisis or Vietnam! This book is about a kid’s strange and interesting summer. It’s surprising how much fun our hero Jack Gantos has, considering that he’s grounded the whole summer. Or at least, we readers have fun reading about it.

The most interesting things happen because Jack is asked to help his neighbor, the ancient Miss Volker. Miss Volker has terrible arthritis, so she needs Jack’s help to type up obituaries for the original residents of Norvelt, who seem to all be dying quickly this summer. Miss Volker tacks on a surprisingly interesting history to each obituary, and she knows relevant details about each resident.

On top of that, we’ve got Jack driving Miss Volker’s car around town. His Dad building an airplane and a runway. His Mom monitoring his behavior. His best friend, the daughter of the funeral parlor owner, teasing him about his fear of dead bodies. And then there’s Jack’s nose:

“How could I forget? I was a nosebleeder. The moment something startled me or whenever I got overexcited or spooked about any little thing blood would spray out of my nose holes like dragon flames.”

There’s a lot of death in Dead End in Norvelt, including a Hell’s Angel who gets hit by a truck in town. But Jack Gantos the author manages to keep things funny. He gives us a great yarn about a kid just trying to stay out of trouble, and managing to learn lots along the way.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/dead_end_in_norvelt.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Between Shades of Gray, by Ruta Sepetys

Award Winners, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Between Shades of Gray

by Ruta Sepetys

Philomel Books, 2011. 344 pages.
Starred Review
2012 Morris Award Finalist

Here’s a work of fiction that constantly made me forget it wasn’t nonfiction.

The book opens dramatically:

“They took me in my nightgown.

“Thinking back, the signs were there — family photos burned in the fireplace, Mother sewing her best silver and jewelry into the lining of her coat late at night, and Papa not returning from work. My younger brother, Jonas, was asking questions. I asked questions, too, but perhaps I refused to acknowledge the signs. Only later did I realize that Mother and Father intended we escape. We did not escape.

“We were taken.”

It’s 1941 in Lithuania. Stalin has annexed their country, and now he rounds up Lithuanian teachers, librarians, and university professors like Lina’s Papa, and their families. They are shipped in cattle cars to labor camps in Siberia.

The author, Ruta Sepetys, was from the family of a Lithuanian refugee who did escape and made it to America. But she researched this book well (even arranging to be locked away in a former Soviet prison!), and her words ring with terrible truth.

This is by no means a pleasant story, and though I was hoping it would end with Lina’s freedom, I’m afraid it doesn’t. An epilogue tells us that surviving deportees spent ten to fifteen years in Siberia. She does, however, manage to work in a message of hope, of the resilience of the human spirit, and of good even in apparent enemies.

This is a powerful and moving story about an episode of history I knew nothing about. The book is not only beautifully crafted, but does the good work of telling the world a story we should never forget.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/between_shades_of_gray.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of Okay for Now Audiobook

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Historical, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

Okay for Now

by Gary D. Schmidt
read by Lincoln Hoppe

Random House, Listening Library, 2011. 9 hours 30 minutes on 8 compact discs.
Starred Review
2012 Odyssey Honor Winner
2011 Sonderbooks Stand-out: #3 Audio Rereads

From the time I read Okay for Now early in 2011, I was hoping it would win the 2012 Newbery Medal. However, I was in several discussions about the book, and found that many others didn’t like the ending and thought too much was thrown into the book at the end and felt it lost believability. Personally, I thought the book completely overcame any flaws, but I feared it wasn’t such a shoo-in for the award as I had hoped.

One of the discussions was at the Morris Seminar, which is a training for award committees. I decided to reread the book in audio form.

Listening to this production of Okay for Now made me fall in love with the book all over again. A key characteristic of the book is the voice of the narrator, Doug Swietek, and reader Lincoln Hoppe gets his voice just right. One of the things I like about the book are the repeated words that are used throughout the book, and Mr. Hoppe read them in a way that you notice the subtle differences in the ways the words are used. For example, when Doug says “Terrific” at the start, it’s always sarcastic. But he uses the word at the end to mean genuinely terrific. There are several other repetitions like that, and Lincoln Hoppe nails them all.

Another thing listening to the audio version pointed out to me was the structure of the book. There are eight CDs, and the fourth CD is full of dramatic turning points. I didn’t notice when I was barreling through reading it to myself, but right in the middle the plot makes some important turns.

So I was indeed disappointed that Okay for Now didn’t get any Newbery Honor, but I was delighted when the audio production won an Odyssey Honor. (The Odyssey awards are for children’s and young adult audiobooks.) The Odyssey Awards do not have to worry about believability of plot. They simply focus on the quality of the production. This one is excellent.

I’ve already talked two of my co-workers into listening to this audiobook. The one catch is that you won’t see the reproductions of the Audubon prints Doug works on. But you will pay much more attention to the descriptions of the birds.

Happy Listening.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/okay_for_now_audio.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library audiobook from the Fairfax County Public Library.

Review of I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley

Fiction Review, Historical, Mystery, Stand-outs, Starred Review 0

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley

Delacorte Press, New York, 2011. 293 pages.
Starred Review
2011 Sonderbooks Standout: #4, Other Fiction

Lovely! A fourth Flavia DeLuce book! I am so happy with how quickly Alan Bradley is writing! And I was all the more happy when I saw this was a Christmas book. I thought it an interesting coincidence that I read two Christmas mysteries this year (The other was A Christmas Homecoming, by Anne Perry), and both involved a theatrical company secluded at an English country home at Christmas in a snowstorm, when a murder occurs. Honestly, I enjoyed this one more because it had Flavia deLuce!

If you haven’t met Flavia before, you will probably do fine just reading this one; you will get the idea. But all the books are so much fun, I do recommend reading them all.

Flavia is an 11-year-old chemical genius with a deep love of poisons. And she’s very good at solving mysteries, but not so good at leaving crime solving to adults. Her mother died years ago climbing mountains, and her father doesn’t pay a lot of attention to bringing up his three daughters. Flavia and her older sisters manage to torment each other rather mercilessly. I did like that it wasn’t quite as bad in this installment — they showed some affection for each other at Christmas.

I love Alan Bradley’s titles, and this one comes from Alfred Tennyson’s poem, “The Lady of Shalott.” In this book, Colonel de Luce, still needing to raise money, has rented out Buckshaw to a film company. The family is still planning to use their own rooms. But then, with the village visiting to see the great film stars perform Romeo and Juliet, a blizzard hits and everyone camps out at Buckshaw — and someone dies. Flavia herself finds the body — in the middle of the night.

I’ve always said that a nice murder mystery makes the perfect Christmas reading, and I thoroughly enjoyed this one. If you can’t be snowed in yourself, how nice to read about others being snowed in, anyway. And I still can’t help but love Flavia. In this book, she does some excellent deducing, and it’s her own home, so surely she can be forgiven for nosing where she’s told to stay away?

Here are some words from Flavia herself:

“Most chemists, whether they admit it or not, have a favorite corner of their craft in which they are forever tinkering, and mine is poisons.

“While I could still become quite excited by recalling how I had dyed my sister Feely’s knickers a distinctive Malay yellow by boiling them in a solution of lead acetate, followed by a jolly good stewing in a solution of potassium chromate, what really made my heart leap up with joy was my ability to produce a makeshift but handy poison by scraping the vivid green verdigris from the copper float-ball of one of Buckshaw’s Victorian toilet tanks.”

Flavia de Luce isn’t someone you forget in a hurry. This is a lovely addition to the series, and I hope that Alan Bradley continues to add books quickly.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/half_sick_of_shadows.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from the Fairfax County Public Library.