Join Flavia de Luce on Her Latest Morbid Adventure

Last week was National DNA Day! Celebrate the discovery of DNA and all of its practical uses by picking up up some suspenseful stories featuring DNA technology!

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The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place, Flavia de Luce Mystery #9 by Alan Bradley is the third or fourth of the Flavia books that I have read (and yes, I admit to reading them out of order, as I frequently do when reading a series that I enjoy.)

Precocious and morbid, Flavia de Luce is much like Wednesday on The Addam’s Family; obsessed with death, decay, and poisons. But unlike the Addam’s Family, the rest of the de Luce family does not share Flavia’s interests. Although Dogger, her father’s manservant, has developed into quite a sleuth himself. Flavia sees herself as a chemist, and an accomplished one at that. She has helped the local constabulary solve several mysteries before this one.

In this installment, the de Luce family is away from home for a quiet holiday following a family tragedy. Like many an amateur sleuth, Flavia stumbles over bodies everywhere she goes. This time, she discovers one in the river, the apparently drowned man rising to the surface as she and the family are out for a boat ride.

There is a circus in town with performers and carnies, and Flavia also makes the acquaintance of the undertaker’s young son, an amateur aerial…