A review by samiism
The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse by Alan Bradley

3.0

Murder is not an easy subject to broach, and I realized that I needed to take it easy on this boy. He was, after all, not much older than me. "Where's the corpse?" I asked.

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, chemical connoisseur and amateur detective, receives a non-postmarked letter on a Sunday that goes: Murder! Come at once. Anson House, Greyminster, Staircase No. 3, J. Plaxton.

A normal person would tread lightly. She does not know who the sender is. Personally, I would think it's a trap. But I'm terribly paranoid. I am assuming that this isn't Flavia's first foray into mysterious situations. She immediately hops on her bicycle Gladys and heads for Anson House. There, she meets a boy not much older than her, who directs her into a busted loo where a naked dead man in the tub. And he seemed to have been carved out of copper. And he is Mr. Denning, the housemaster. Ooooh!

I immediately like Flavia, although I am just 12 pages in. When the Plaxton boy comments that the crime scene is probably no place for a girl, she snaps back: "Girl be blowed! I'm here as a brain, not as a female." Such sass! She also takes no bullshit from teenage boys. "I live on petrol fumes and swill motor oil for breakfast," she says when confronted by bullies.

It's a short story, full of wit and snark. Flavia was a fun character to read.