Name: What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust
Rating: 4 (8 reviews)
Author: Alan Bradley

About this book

Summary

Book Summary

Amateur sleuth Flavia de Luce, along with her pestilent younger cousin, investigates the murder of a former public hangman and uncovers a secret that brings the greatest shock of her life.

Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious moon-faced cousin Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. Undine's main talent, aside from cultivating disgusting habits, seems to be raising Flavia's hackles, although in her best moments she shows potential for trespassing, trickery, and other assorted mayhem.

When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family's longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn't it she who'd picked the mushrooms, cooked the omelet, and served it to Greyleigh moments before his death? "I have to admit," says Flavia, an expert in the chemical nature of poisons, "that I'd been praying to God for a jolly good old-fashioned mushroom poisoning. Not that I wanted anyone to die, but why give a girl a gift such as mine without giving her the opportunity to use it?"

But Flavia knows the beloved Mrs. Mullet is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the obnoxious Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet's good name. Little does she know that following the case's twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery—one with the power to upend her entire life.

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Media Reviews

"Flavia's characteristic quirky humor and unorthodox thinking are on full display, and the ending finds her taking a well-earned step forward in her maturity. This series is as fresh as ever." —Publishers Weekly

"Nobody could possibly unite intelligence work, mythological monsters, and village gossip as adroitly as Bradley's heroine." —Kirkus Reviews

"I love the Flavia de Luce novels! I identify, though I unfortunately didn't have an Uncle Tarquin and was forced to make do with a Christmas chemistry set from the Sears catalog. Flavia is the best female detective I've ever read, full of realism, self-confidence, and emotion (in roughly equal parts), and her tales are hilarious, engaging, and occasionally heartbreaking." —Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Outlander series

"Cozy mystery fans will love this latest delightful installment featuring Flavia de Luce, Alan Bradley's plucky and spirited protagonist." —Nita Prose, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Maid

This information about What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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PhyllisE

Flavia is always entertaining
Thanks to NetGalley & Random House Publishing Group for a digital advance reader copy. All comments and opinions are my own.

I’m always up for a Flavia de Luce novel – I’ve read nine so far and have found them entertaining and different enough from any other cozy mystery to keep me turning the pages. And by the way, each book’s title is a quote taken from an assortment of British poems.

The first novel in the series, "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie," introduces us to Flavia, a precocious 11-year-old chemist and poison expert. Now in book #11, she is probably 14 years old and an orphan with a very adult British attitude. Living in 1950s England in an ancient country house called Buckshaw, Flavia nonchalantly deals with post-war rationing, dead bodies, poisons, spies, kidnapping, and murder.

What makes this series unique is Flavia’s nearly adult perspective and her appealing voice. As the narrator, she shares what she’s thinking as well as observing. Her snide comments are amusing and entertaining.

For instance, she explains her interest in chemistry: “I was only truly myself when I was alone among the glass flasks and retorts in that dear chemical lab in the otherwise abandoned east wing of Buckshaw – great-uncle Tarquin died 25 years ago, he left behind a laboratory that caused the chemists of Oxford and Cambridge to weep with envy. He had also left behind a treasure trove of his notebooks and journals which, despite being placed under strict embargo by some obscure and shadowy government department, had remained at Buckshaw, where I had been devouring them for years.”

In this novel Flavia is determined to solve the murder of a neighbor, Major Greyleigh, who apparently died from eating poison mushrooms cooked by Flavia’s housekeeper Mrs. Mullett. Ignoring warnings from the local inspector to leave the investigation to the professionals, Flavia hopes to clear Mrs. Mullett’s name as she gathers clues, interviews various suspicious people, consults with devoted servant Dogger, all while traversing the area on her trusty bicycle Gladys.

Unfortunately, this book didn’t live up to the earlier novels in the series for me. Parts of the story were confusing and hard to follow, with a major plot twist that came out of nowhere and was never satisfactorily explained. If you’ve been reading these all along, then by all means crack this one open and see if you enjoy it as well as the others. If this is the first you’re hearing of Flavia, go back and start with number one. I guarantee it will be delightful and charming.

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Author Information

Biography
Books by this Author

Alan Bradley Author Biography

Photo: Shirley Bradley

Alan Bradley is the New York Times bestselling author of many short stories, children's stories, newspaper columns, and the memoir The Shoebox Bible. His first Flavia de Luce novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, received the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award, and was nominated for the Anthony Award. His other Flavia de Luce novels are The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Speaking from Among the Bones, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, and Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd, as well as the ebook short story "The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse."

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