The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

    I've been spinning out the last few pages of The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, the concluding* volume in Alan Bradley's terrific Flavia de Luce series, because I didn't want it to end. If you are already a fan of the books, you will not be disappointed with this one, and if you haven't yet discovered them then get hold of the first, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and take it from there - they are so original and such fun!

    I'm not going to divulge anything about what happens in Book VI because to reveal a fact or two would be to give away more than I'd like, but let's just say that - following on from yesterday's post - the loose ends are all neatly knotted, and we now know a great deal more about what is really what in Flavia's world than we did before. Sorry to be so cryptic, but I don't want to spoil a moment's reading for anyone.

    The series as a whole is just a delight with our very unusual heroine, the precocious, quick-witted, pigtailed eleven-year-old sleuth and master chemist (and expert in poisons), and the beautifully rendered 1950s English village setting. Flavia lives at Buckshaw, a vast and crumbling manor house, the ancestral home of uncertain future which she shares with her father and two older sisters, but more often than not she's to be found hurtling about the lanes on her trusty bicycle Gladys, keeping a keen eye on whatever is going on in and around the village of Bishop's Lacey.

    Having had no formal education other than that provided by a series of unsatisfactory governesses, Flavia is an auto-didact, her knowledge of chemistry a product of many hours spent in Great Uncle Tarquin's laboratory in Buckshaw's abandoned east wing. She has pored over his notebooks and carries out her own experiments with an innate curiosity and an admirable degree of resourcefulness, and even for this non-scientist, that aspect of the books is another source of richness.

    Flavia's family situation is one reason why the young girl has acquired the investigative habit - both in and out of the lab - for hers is an emotionally distant household. Her father is a broken man following the loss of his wife in a climbing accident in Tibet some ten years earlier, and his older daughters are perpetually at war with their younger sibling. Bluff Aunt Felicity intervenes on occasion, Colonel de Luce's manservant Dogger holds a watching brief and is usually to be relied upon in a tight spot, but for the most part, Flavia is left to her own devices and so her childhood has been far from conventional.   

    There are blackly comic episodes and moments of great poignancy, but it's Flavia's breezy style, encyclopedic knowledge, and touching independence of spirit which propel the books and make them such a tonic to read.

    *Alan Bradley has created something special here, and so I'm very pleased to see that Sam Mendes and Neal Street Productions (the company behind Call the Midwife) have optioned the TV rights to the books with production in conjunction with the BBC, and that there are to be four more novels which "will allow exploration of other parts of [Flavia's] world", so we haven't reached the end after all. Hurrah!

Comments

[mary lou bethune]

I absolutely love Falvia de Luce. Bradley has given us a wonderful set of stories that I hope don't ever end.

[Jane Jazz]

I'm afraid to say I have only seen these books in passing and never actually got round to reading any. You've convinced me to start now though... and where better than with book one? Do you think Alan Bradley planned the whole series with an eye on the eventual pile of six books, knowing the first was destined to be The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pile? I really hope so.
Seeing them all together here, it's hard to understand how I have resisted up to now, especially because the titles are so wonderful. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches is particularly alluring, but will have to wait in line now. Thanks for this lovely review, and for determinedly avoiding any spoilers!

[Cornflower]

I was so glad to hear that there will be more books as these are novels I really look forward to. Great stuff!

[Cornflower]

I have been wondering about the planning, Jane, and if I had time just now I'd go back and re-read the earlier books to see how Alan Bradley constructed the 'pillars' of the overall narrative arc.
If his Wikipedia entry is correct, his CWA Debut Dagger was won on the basis of a few pages and a synopsis, after which there was a bidding war with rights for three books sold. Whether at that stage he had any idea of writing half a dozen, with all that that would entail for the development of the plot, I don't know, but I'd love to find out.
They are super books, and if you do try them I hope you'll enjoy them enormously.

[Claire]

I haven't read any but I'm sure if Sam Mendes is involved in any adaptations they'll be good. I'll look out for them.

[Barbara]

Top review! I've loved the lot and wish there could be more.

[Cornflower]

From what I've read, Alan himself will be involved in the production in an advisory capacity, so that augurs well, too.
I've read each of the books as they've come out and would never put them on the 'TBR later' pile - they always go to the head of the queue!

[Cornflower]

Thanks, Barbara, and thanks to Alan Bradley for writing such great books.

[Tui]

Oh good about it not being over. I was so afraid that it would be. I would miss her terribly.

[Cornflower]

Me too, Tui!