The Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
by Alan Bradley

Flavia doe it again, and with her usual charm and style ! Bravo Flavia. The story opens up where we left her.  Flavia is now on her way to a school for young women in Canada. She is  totally alone in a brave new world which she is totally unprepared for ! The stage is for murder, mystery and mayhem when a body falls out of the chimney in her new room. What a way to start ! Flavia must negotiate the challenges of a new school, new mates, new everything while she outs her best detecting skills to use to solve the mystery of the corpse ! Along the way she meets new friends and discovers things about herself that she would never have discovered had she stated in England.

I have to say that I did miss the interaction between her and her sisters, whom are absent  from this book. They always brought out her poisonous side. None of the new characters do the job as well.

We are lead to believe that the corpse that falls out of the chimney is old and that the mystery may never be  solved. However, Flavia is at her best and this is not the case at all. During the course of solving this mystery, Flavia is introduced in to the world of spy craft, and that is all I will say about that ! I hope that these new skills that she is learning will be put to good in use in future adventures !.

The murder, it turns out,  was committed and covered up for the most basic of human reasons, the human heart.

Mr. Bradly has done it again, a great story with a great heroine !

Janie