Review: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia de Luce #4) by Alan Bradley

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (November 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385344015
• ISBN-13: 978-0385344012

It’s Christmastime, and the precocious Flavia de Luce—an eleven-year-old sleuth with a passion for chemistry and a penchant for crime-solving—is tucked away in her laboratory, whipping up a concoction to ensnare Saint Nick. But she is soon distracted when a film crew arrives at Buckshaw, the de Luces’ decaying English estate, to shoot a movie starring the famed Phyllis Wyvern. Amid a raging blizzard, the entire village of Bishop’s Lacey gathers at Buckshaw to watch Wyvern perform, yet nobody is prepared for the evening’s shocking conclusion: a body found, past midnight, strangled to death with a length of film. But who among the assembled guests would stage such a chilling scene? As the storm worsens and the list of suspects grows, Flavia must use every ounce of sly wit at her disposal to ferret out a killer hidden in plain sight.

 

About the Author

 

Alan Bradley is the internationally bestselling author of many short stories, children’s stories, newspaper columns, and the memoir The Shoebox Bible. His first Flavia de Luce novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, received the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award, and was nominated for the Anthony Award. His second and third Flavia de Luce novels are The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag and the New York Times bestselling A Red Herring Without Mustard. Bradley lives in Malta with his wife and two calculating cats.



My Review


Without a doubt, this is one of the best mystery series out there.  I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be able to read another adventure of Flavia de Luce.  It was wonderful to be back at Buckshaw with all of the de Luce's and Dogger.

We are given a few more clues to Dogger's past.  And I cannot help thinking that everything is leading up to Harriet returning at some point....wishful thinking maybe...Flavia desperately needs a mother and to be loved.  In the meantime, our favorite budding chemist is plotting up a storm in order to try to capture Father Christmas on Christmas Eve.  Throw in a film crew and an aging movie star and the fun begins.

Of course there is a murder and we know who will solve it!  But that is just a bit of the fun.  The best part is just being at Buckshaw in England in the 1950s.