Flavia de Luce cannot go anywhere without discovering a dead body. In her ninth adventure, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place, by Alan Bradley, is no exception. Flavia is on a holiday with her sisters and the faithful Dogger when she sticks her hands into a drowned man’s mouth while boating. Her sisters are, naturally, distressed. Flavia and Dogger go right to work. They identify a number of clues before the local constable can even get to the scene. But it takes a lot of legwork before Flavia can figure out what happened to the dead man—and unravel a possible miscarriage of justice from two years earlier.
Flavia and her sisters are in a difficult spot at the beginning of The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place. Their father died six months earlier. Flavia has been kicked out of boarding school. And their dreadful Aunt Felicity has plans for them that none of them like. Dogger’s suggestion of a holiday in Volesthorpe is a relief for the trio. Flavia is most intrigued by Volesthorpe because it was the home of Canon Whitbread, who was convicted of poisoning three elderly women in his parish. Discovering a dead man who turns out to be the canon’s relative gives Flavia plenty of opportunities to ask questions and get into trouble.
The trouble with reviewing mysteries is treading the fine line between revealing just enough to tempt other readers into reading the book and not giving away so much that it gives away the game. I can say that there are plenty of twists and turns in The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place. I enjoyed how messy it was. This is not an easy case to solve. I honestly gave up trying to beat Flavia to the punch. Instead, I tried to keep track of the clues and the red herrings and witnesses/potential suspects and let the answer come to me without forcing it. I wanted to applaud Flavia and Dogger when they arrived at the solution.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration. It will be released 30 January 2018.