Title: As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust (Flavia de Luce #7)
Author: Alan Bradley
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Source: Library
Format: Audiobook
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Rating: ★★★★
Goodreads Synopsis:
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Flavia de Luce—“part Harriet the Spy, part Violet Baudelaire from Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events” (The New York Times Book Review)—takes her remarkable sleuthing prowess to the unexpectedly unsavory world of Canadian boarding schools in the captivating new mystery from New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley.
Banished! is how twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce laments her predicament, when her father and Aunt Felicity ship her off to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, the boarding school that her mother, Harriet, once attended across the sea in Canada. The sun has not yet risen on Flavia’s first day in captivity when a gift lands at her feet. Flavia being Flavia, a budding chemist and sleuth, that gift is a charred and mummified body, which tumbles out of a bedroom chimney. Now, while attending classes, making friends (and enemies), and assessing the school’s stern headmistress and faculty (one of whom is an acquitted murderess), Flavia is on the hunt for the victim’s identity and time of death, as well as suspects, motives, and means. Rumors swirl that Miss Bodycote’s is haunted, and that several girls have disappeared without a trace. When it comes to solving multiple mysteries, Flavia is up to the task—but her true destiny has yet to be revealed.
Review:
I love the Flavia de Luce mysteries. She is a hilarious twelve year old girl in the 1950s, who loves chemistry. She stumbles upon mysteries wherever she goes. In this story, she travels to Toronto to attend her mother’s former school. She discovers a body stuffed in the fireplace of her room the first night she is there. She spends the rest of the book snooping to figure out what happened.
I loved this audiobook. The narrator, Jane Entwhistle, was amazing. She had the best voice for Flavia, and the voices she did for the Canadian characters were great too. I really liked how slowly she spoke. It gave me time to listen to the story and understand what was happening. Sometimes audiobook narrators speak so quickly that I have a hard time following the story, but her pacing was great.
I didn’t like the ending of the story. There wasn’t really any way for the reader to figure out what had happened. It felt rushed, with many of the mysteries being uncovered at once.
I really enjoyed this audiobook! I’ll definitely have to listen to more Flavia de Luce audiobooks!
What to read next:
Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d (Flavia de Luce #8) by Alan Bradley
Have you read As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust? What did you think of it?
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