smith-jones reviewed on 8/3/2014 + 47 more book reviews

I am being generous with the 3 stars in my rating since I had hoped the plot would thicken and grow more interesting but it didn't. I found that too many characters had appeared out of the blue e.g. Lena De Luce, Terence Tardiman and Mr. Tallis that I thought felt like an attempt to bring a certain mystery to Harriet's death that was far fetched; after all, Harriet had been nothing but a ghost of the past. I was not impressed, the whole spy theme held no interest to me as it was too far reaching in my opinion. I actually was hoping that Flavia would carry on with her experiment but alas, that was foiled too.

I appreciated the solid character like Dogger, Mrs. Mullet and of course the Colonel, even the sisters were faded here. Flavia was her usual irritating know it all adult chemist male in the body of an 11 yr. old precocious child.

I love Dogger, and I would have loved to read more about his time as a captive, that plot intertwined with Harriet's story, would have been so much more interesting.


With this said, I will paraphrase the quote I loved: "I have tried so damnably hard to leave alone, which seems to me the most precious gift one can bestow upon a child." Colonel Havilland De Luce speaking to his daughter Flavia when informing her of his decision about her future and Buckshaw's.

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