This series chronicles the adventures of a precocious young girl with a passion for chemistry and a penchant for unraveling mysteries. Set in 1950s rural England, she uses her sharp intellect and unconventional methods to solve puzzling deaths. Cycling through her ancestral home and the surrounding village, she uncovers secrets long buried, proving that age is no barrier to brilliant detective work.
It is the summer of 1950 - and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds an man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begings in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."
Take one precocious eleven-year-old girl called Flavia. Add an ancient country house somewhere in England in 1950. Then sprinkle with murder, mystery and dark family secrets...
Flavia de Luce thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey are over-until beloved puppeteer Rupert Porson has his own strings sizzled in an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - Alan Bradley, author of the most award-winning series debut of any year, returns with another irresistible Flavia de Luce novel. In the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey, the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce had asked a Gypsy woman to tell her fortune—never expecting to later stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned almost to death in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.
Zbliżają się święta, a wybitna jedenastoletnia detektyw Flawia de Luce spędza
jak zwykle czas w laboratorium chemicznym, przygotowując pułapkę na… Świętego
Mikołaja. Świąteczną atmosferę w Buckshaw przerywa przyjazd ekipy filmowej. W
rezydencji de Luce’ów powstanie film z gwiazdą światowego kina, Phyllis
Wyvern, w roli głównej. Tuż przed Wigilią rozpoczyna się śnieżyca, a w
Buckshaw zbiera się niemal cała wioska Bishop’s Lacey, by obejrzeć benefis
gwiazdy. Wspaniały Szekspirowski wieczór w foyer wiekowej posiadłości kończy
się po północy odkryciem trupa. Morderstwa dokonano za pomocą taśmy filmowej…
Kto spośród zebranych w Buckshaw przyjezdnych był w stanie dopuścić się tak
przerażającego czynu? Na dworze szaleje zamieć, a Flawia musi znaleźć zabójcę,
który ukrywa się… na oczach wszystkich. Powieść Alana Bradleya Tych cieni oczy
znieść nie mogą jest czwartym tomem przygód Flawii de Luce, które wkrótce
zostaną sfilmowana przez Sama Mendesa, reżysera ostatniego filmu z Jamesem
Bondem.
"Colonel de Luce, in desperate need of funds, rents his beloved estate of Buckshaw over to a film company. They will be shooting a movie over the Christmas holidays, filming scenes in the stately manse with a famous and reclusive star. She is widely despised, so it is to no one's surprise when she turns up murdered, strangled by a length of film from her own movies! With the snow raging outside and Buckshaw locked in, the house is full of suspects. But Flavia de Luce is more than ready to solve the wintry country-house murder. She'll have to be quick-witted, though, to negotiate the volatile chemicals of a cast and crew starting to crack--and locked in a house with a murderer!"--Provided by publisher
When the tomb of St. Tancred is opened at a village church in Bishop's Lacey, its shocking contents lead to another case for Flavia de Luce, where greed, pride and murder result in old secrets coming to light, along with a forgotten flower that hasn't been seen for half a thousand years.
On a spring morning in 1951, eleven-year-old chemist and aspiring detective Flavia de Luce gathers with her family at the railway station, awaiting the return of her long-lost mother, Harriet. Yet upon the train’s arrival in the English village of Bishop’s Lacey, Flavia is approached by a tall stranger who whispers a cryptic message into her ear. Moments later, he is dead, mysteriously pushed under the train by someone in the crowd. Who was this man, what did his words mean, and why were they intended for Flavia? Back home at Buckshaw, the de Luces’ crumbling estate, Flavia puts her sleuthing skills to the test. Following a trail of clues sparked by the discovery of a reel of film stashed away in the attic, she unravels the deepest secrets of the de Luce clan, involving none other than Winston Churchill himself. Surrounded by family, friends, and a famous pathologist from the Home Office—and making spectacular use of Harriet’s beloved Gipsy Moth plane, Blithe Spirit—Flavia will do anything, even take to the skies, to land a killer.
"Flavia rules! In this New York Times bestselling series of enchanting mysteries, youthful chemist and aspiring detective Flavia de Luce once again brings her knowledge of poisons and her indefatigable spirit to solve dastardly crimes -- but this time, she leaves behind her beloved English countryside, and takes her sleuthing prowess to the unexpectedly unsavory world of Canadian boarding schools!"-- Provided by publisher
Mystery fans seeking novels of wit, an immersive English countryside setting,
and rich characterizations will be rewarded with this newest entry in the
award-winning series. - Library Journal (starred review) There is such a thing
as willing suspension of disbelief brought on by sheer outlandish charm, and
that's what [Alan] Bradley and some delicious writing have tapped. - London
Free Press Flavia's first-person narration reveals her precocious intellect as
well as her youthful vulnerability. - Shelf Awareness Flavia is once again a
fun, science-loving protagonist. . . . This series entry ends on a note that
begs for the next story. - Library Reads An eleven-year-old prodigy with an
astonishing mind for chemistry and a particular interest in poisons. - The
Strand Magazine (Five of the Best Historical Heroines) Bradley's preteen
heroine comes through in the end with a series of deductions so clever she
wants to hug herself. So will you. - Kirkus Reviews From the Hardcover
edition.
Advance praise for The Grave's a Fine and Private Place Outstanding . . . As
usual, Bradley makes his improbable series conceit work and relieves the
plot's inherent darkness with clever humor.-Publishers Weekly (starred review)
There's only one Flavia. . . . Series fans will anticipate the details of this
investigation, along with one last taste of Flavia's unorthodox family
life.-Library Journal (starred review) Fans of the precocious sleuth who share
her unapologetically enthusiastic sense that 'an unexamined corpse was a tale
untold' will rub their hands gleefully, confident that her resolution will
unleash a dazzling barrage of innocent-seeming questions, recherché chemical
and pharmacological tidbits, fibs and whoppers, and the most coyly bratty
behavior outside the pages of Kay Thompson's chronicles of Eloise. . . .
Bradley's unquenchable heroine brings 'the most complicated case I had ever
come across' to a highly satisfying conclusion, with the promise of still
brighter days ahead.-Kirkus Reviews Acclaim for Alan Bradley's beloved Flavia
de Luce novels, winners of the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award,
Barry Award, Agatha Award, Macavity Award, Dilys Award, and Arthur Ellis Award
If ever there were a sleuth who's bold, brilliant, and, yes, adorable, it's
Flavia de Luce.-USA Today Delightful . . . a combination of Eloise and
Sherlock Holmes.-The Boston Globe [Flavia] is as addictive as dark
chocolate.-Daily Mail Flavia de Luce is still the world's greatest adolescent
British chemist/busybody/sleuth.-The Seattle Times
In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days. For a needed escape, Dogger, the loyal family servant, suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, imagining herself Ernest Hemingway battling a marlin, and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish. But in Flavia's grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body. If anything could take Flavia's mind off sorrow, it is solving a murder--although one that may lead the young sleuth to an early grave.
Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop's Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce's sister Ophelia is at last getting hitched, like a mule to a wagon. A church is a wonderful place for a wedding, muses Flavia, surrounded as it is by the legions of the dead, whose listening bones bear silent witness to every promise made at the altar. Flavia is not your normal twelve-year-old girl. An expert in the chemical nature of poisons, she has solved many mysteries, which has sharpened her considerable detection skills to the point where she had little choice but to turn professional. So Flavia and dependable Dogger, estate gardener and sounding board extraordinaire, set up shop at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, eager to serve--not so simple an endeavor with her odious, little moon-faced cousin, Undine, constantly underfoot. But Flavia and Dogger persevere. Little does she know that their first case will be extremely close to home, beginning with an unwelcome discovery in Ophelia's wedding cake: a human finger.
