You're Beautiful

When we arrive at eternity's shore
Where death is just a memory and tears are no more
We'll enter in as the wedding bells ring
Your bride will come together and we'll sing
You're beautiful

book nook: flavia de luce mysteries

 












   


the buckshaw chronicles, vol. 1
alan bradley

i stumbled upon the first flavia de luce mystery, the sweetness at the bottom of the pie, almost by chance one day at the library. i know they say not to judge a book by it's cover, but this is literally what happened: the cover looked good so i picked up the book, read the summary, and decided to give it a try. i'm glad i did - i liked it so much that i went back to the library after finishing the first book and borrowed the next two (the weed that string's the hangman's bag and a red herring without mustard)! (there will be six books in the series, but so far only four have been written to date).

the books are set in the 1950s in bishop's lacey (an english village) and the heroine in all of them is flavia de luce, a self-taught chemist and sleuth who is so intelligent, curious, persevering, adventurous, and witty that sometimes i forget that she is only eleven years old - especially since her vocabulary and reasoning is super advanced for her age. i love her, she is the best! anyway, each book is based around a different crime afterwhich flavia goes around town on her trusty bicycle, gladys, doing unofficial detective work to solve the cases. (where are the police in all of this, you ask? they're present and at work too, but flavia seems to be all the more resourceful on her own). also mentioned in the books are flavia's family and a few other notable characters in and around bishop's lacey, depending on who flavia needs to use as sources of information.

i found each of these books to be enjoyable, fun, and endearing to read. i think bradley is a great writer and i'm so glad he's Canadian, yay! anyway, i definitely recommend these novels to anyone looking for a murder mystery or just an overall good read. i can't wait to read the fourth installment!