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A review by eacolgan
The Grave's a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley
3.0
I'm rounding down 3.5 stars to 3 for this one. There are things I loved about it-- more of Dogger, Flavia's growing relationships with him and with her sisters, and the setting outside Bishop's Lacey. However, my criticisms are fairly serious, the main of which is that as an installment in an ongoing series, the book didn't feel like it advanced very much of the overall story.
Admittedly, I might still be suffering from disappointment that the series didn't turn into the story of Flavia moving through Miss Bodeycoate's learning how to be a baby spy.... that would've been a bitchin' series, and the books since As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust have maybe felt a bit directionless to me because I can't quite tell where things are heading now that they're NOT going that way. Once you're nine books into a series, there has to be something keeping the reader's interest that's different from the earlier books-- the scientific experiments and Flavia's small cons with townsfolk are still funny, but not measurably different from her exploits in earlier books, so if I found myself needing a fix of Flavia's cleverness, why wouldn't I just reread earlier books?
Anyway-- the writing continues to be good, the mystery was fine, and of course Flavia continues to have one of the strongest narrative voices in literature currently. The series overall is great, and the audiobooks are so much fun. But I'm losing steam to keep pushing new installments to the front of my list as they're released; there hasn't been enough new material in the later volumes to merit displacing things at the top of my to-read list.
Spoiler
The death of the de Luce patriarch was glossed over with a "six months later..." sort of fade-out that was a big letdown after the cliffhanger of the last installment. And so little happened to change things for Flavia or her family-- the question of Buckshaw's fate seems to still be imminent (in the beginning of the book it sounds like Aunt Felicity has decreed that Flavia has to sell it, but by the end she's talking about her future plans for it), Feeley and Dieter are no closer to the altar, there's no sense of what Flavia is going to do with the rest of her life except go back home and keep stumbling upon dead bodies.Admittedly, I might still be suffering from disappointment that the series didn't turn into the story of Flavia moving through Miss Bodeycoate's learning how to be a baby spy.... that would've been a bitchin' series, and the books since As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust have maybe felt a bit directionless to me because I can't quite tell where things are heading now that they're NOT going that way. Once you're nine books into a series, there has to be something keeping the reader's interest that's different from the earlier books-- the scientific experiments and Flavia's small cons with townsfolk are still funny, but not measurably different from her exploits in earlier books, so if I found myself needing a fix of Flavia's cleverness, why wouldn't I just reread earlier books?
Anyway-- the writing continues to be good, the mystery was fine, and of course Flavia continues to have one of the strongest narrative voices in literature currently. The series overall is great, and the audiobooks are so much fun. But I'm losing steam to keep pushing new installments to the front of my list as they're released; there hasn't been enough new material in the later volumes to merit displacing things at the top of my to-read list.