Miss Flavia de Luce is still on the loose

The intrepid eleven-year-old sleuth, Flavia de Luce, is determined to solve the mysteries that present themselves. Sometimes that requires manipulating a few adults: "When God has given you a great brain and long eyelashes, they may be the only weapons you have at your disposal." Naturally, she uses them.

This time, the death is a drowning. Flavia is not home at Buckshaw, but on holiday with her sisters. Predictably, they switch back and forth between moody and mean.

Fortunately, Dogger is available to take her where she needs to go in Harriet's Rolls Royce, and to conjure up a few chemical tests in a hotel room as well. All in a good cause.

This time, thugh, Flavia sails too close to the wind. Her snooping leads to her discovery and capture in a coffin maker's workshop. Fearing she's had the biscuit, she mentally prepares herself to die, then return to earth in a new incarnation as a famous chemist. Fortunately, with friends and relatives near at hand, the situation is less desperate than she'd thought.

And for Kelowna author Alan Bradley, the Flavia de Luce series is doing much better than he'd expected.