The Dead in their Vaulted Arches Review

If you've been following my blog for a while, you know that I adore Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce series. He publishes about one a year and is up to book six with this current release. Flavia is an almost 12 year old daughter of a formerly wealthy family who lives in a crumbling estate in England. She has a distant father, two resentful sisters and a mother who disappeared in a mountaineering accident when she was only a baby. Flavia is intelligent, headstrong, independent and obsessed with chemistry, especially the making of poisons. The series has taken place over the course of about a year during which time Flavia has been involved in six mysteries, usually involving a dead body. Left mostly to her own devices, Flavia seems to raise herself and both causes and gets out of trouble relatively easy. She's a true, unique voice and an intriguing protagonist.

Anyway, about a year ago, I was sitting in the Trenton train station waiting for my mother-in-law to pick me up for my sister-in-law's rehearsal dinner. She was running late, so I got to finish the previous Flavia de Luce mystery, Speaking from Among the Bones. It ended with a spectacular cliffhanger, which (SPOILER ALERT), I am going to talk about in this review since A. the book came out over a year ago and B. the cliffhanger is central to the plot in this novel. This review is going to be pretty spoiler heavy so please, read at your own risk if you haven't picked up the book yet.

Another reminder - SPOILERS BELOW!

Speaking from Among the Bones ended with Haviland de Luce, Flavia's father, calling his three daughters together and announcing that their mother, Harriet, had been found. I completely freaked out when I read this in the train station, especially when I learned I had a year until the next book came out. I wrote in the review of that book that this wasn't exactly a surprise. Harriet has been a lively and mysterious presence in the books since the beginning. The family's financial issues are even tied up in the fact that Harriet did not leave a will and the property does not just automatically revert to the father or the girls. So it wasn't a surprise that she would resurface, since her body had never been found. However, the more I thought about this new novel, the more I wondered how Harriet's presence will affect Flavia. Of course her return will solve the financial woes of the family and they will no longer lose their beloved family estate, Buckshaw, but how will Flavia cope with having a more present parent?

I was completely let down by the end of the first chapter. The whole family is gathered together, along with most of the townspeople, at the long out of use Buckshaw train station, which has been repaired for this special train visit. Haviland refused to go to London to meet Harriet since they first met at Buckshaw so it was more appropriate for them to meet again at the station. It doesn't take long before I realized that the train full of dignitaries and important members of the government (Winston Churchill himself shows up!) was not escorting home a live and healthy Harriet, desperate to reunite with her family. Instead, it was carrying her body, which had been found preserved in a glacier after ten years. I should have known Harriet wasn't found alive. It would have solved too many problems to easily and Flavia's story would lose momentum. Harriet's actual death makes for a much more interesting plot.

On the platform, Churchill approaches Flavia and says something strange to her about Pheasant Sandwiches. She has no clue what this means. A little while later, a very tall man walks up to Flavia and whispers something to her about the Gamekeeper being in danger and the Nide. She again is confused but is swept up in the moment of her mother's coffin being unloaded from the train. Before the de Luces begin the trek back to Buckshaw, the tall man winds up dead beneath the wheels of the train. Flavia hears someone exclaim that he had been pushed but is quickly ushered back into the family car and heads home to begin the mourning process. Harriet's body is laid out in her bedroom, which has been untouched for ten years and each member of the family from Haviland, to his sister Felicity to the three de Luce girls are charged with standing vigil over the coffin.

Flavia, of course, decides to use her hours to resurrect her mother using some complicated chemical reaction. She has to sneak off to get the equipment, but as usual, she is hardly missed by the family. Alone, finally, with her mother's grave, she cuts through the layers of the coffin and for the first time, sees her mother's face, perfectly preserved and looking remarkably like Flavia herself. She also manages to retrieve a leather purse from her mother's clothing which contains what appears to be Harriet's will. However, before Flavia can continue her experiment, representatives from the Home Office (the branch of the British government that deals with immigration, security and law and order) release her from her vigil to conduct an autopsy.

Flavia also uses her chemistry skills to develop a roll of cinematic film that she found in the attic (or in her laboratory - I can't remember which). It reveals Harriet flying her plane, Blithe Spirit, while pregnant with Flavia, playing with her older daughters and having a picnic with Haviland. She also mouths the words "Pheasant Sandwiches" to whoever was filming when her husband's back was turned. Clearly Flavia's interest is peaked. The various funeral events slow up her investigation as she gets the opportunity to fly in her mother's old plane (twice) and get sidetracked by her annoying young cousin, Undine, the daughter of Harriet's cousin, Lena. However, due to various circumstances, Flavia begins to suss out the truth about her mother.

The big revelations: Harriet was a spy. She was sent to Japan during WWII, where coincidentally her husband was interned in as a POW. Her job was to identify a mole in the British government who was passing on information. On her way home, she went through the Himalayas and met her end (fell or pushed?) She actually came face to face with Haviland while as a guest of the Japanese government (they were showing off their captured British officers) but they could not acknowledge each other. How heartbreaking that this was their last view of one another. Harriet, and possibly Haviland, were part of a secret MI group referred to as the Nide (a group of pheasants). The phrase "Pheasant Sandwiches" acted as a warning about the spy.

The double agent, as it turns out, was Lena de Luce, Harriet's cousin. I was suspicious of her from the start so I sort of figured she was from the "dark branch" of the de Luce family tree, especially when she asked to meet with Flavia alone towards the end of the book. This never actually happened because the police also were onto Lena who during Harriet's funeral tries to flee and ends up meeting a nasty end while attempting to jump through a stain glass window. Yuck.

The other big turn of events is that the youngest daughter of the de Luce families are given certain privileges and responsibilities. Flavia has always been given free reign to explore her own interests. Turns out her father was always keeping an eye on her and allowing her to have freedom, despite others' recommendations. He was also helping to keep her laboratory stocked with the supplies she needed. This explains why her sisters have always resented her - they sensed that she is involved in something they are excluded from. It also explains why Harriet ended up leaving her Buckshaw in the long missing will, and why Churchill approached her at the train station. By the end of the book, Haviland tells Flavia that he has neglected her education and that she is being enrolled in the same school her mother went to. Flavia truly is being groomed to take on her mother's role in the family.

The ending made me think that there might not be another book, but according to Bradley's wikipedia page, he was originally contracted to write six books in the series, but that was pushed to ten just recently, which is awesome. I don't know what will happen next, though. Will the upcoming novels take place in Buckshaw during school holidays or away at the school in Canada (where the chemistry mistress is an acquitted husband killer!). I'm intrigued by the idea that Flavia's world will broaden and she will have to navigate a whole new set of rules. A school has to be more rigorous than her free life at Buckshaw. Also, I'm interested in the idea that she is being trained to take on an important government role like Harriet was. This is going to give Bradley the opportunity to reset the series if he wishes too, which should be interesting. So far, there is nothing on his website indicating the next title or when it will be released but I'm hoping Bradley will stick to his annual book releases because I am dying to know what will happen to Flavia next!

Great article about the series

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The Interrupted Tale (The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Book IV) Review

Last year I reviewed the third book in this adorable series, The Unseen Guest. Since then, I've been eagerly awaiting the publication of book four and as usual, Maryrose Wood did not disappoint.

The book opens with intrepid nanny, Penelope Lumley, in a bit of a depression because it is her 16th birthday and no one at Ashton Place is aware of that. Of course everything perks up nicely by the end of the first chapter. She receives an invitation from Charlotte Mortimer, the beloved headmistress of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females, to speak at the first annual Celebrate Alumnae Knowledge Exposition (CAKE). Lady Ashton grants Penny permission to take the Incorrigibles off to her alma mater where the governess is disturbed to find Judge Quinzy on the board of trustees, making all sorts of unpleasant changes. After the events of previous books, Penelope is still convinced that the judge is really Edward Ashton, supposedly the late father of her employer, Frederick Ashton.

Penny must care for her rambunctious and intelligent charges, write her speech, navigate the changed school and try to solve the mystery of Judge Quinzy. She learns that the Swanburne Academy is on the verge of being changed completely by the new trustees and must win over the alums and the board by her speech demonstrating her academic talents learned at the school. Of course she has the help of her charges, her former teachers and friends, Ms. Mortimer and Simon, her special friend who appears after a dangerous excursion with pirates.

The book ends with an Interrupted Tale, as the title suggests, which only goes to further the mystery of the series. What mysterious affliction plagues the Ashton family? Why must Penelope continue to dye her hair? Why does Judge Quinzy refer to "pruning" a bit of his family tree to keep one line strong? Why do I suspect that Penny and the Incorrigibles are related to the Ashtons? There are no straight answers in this novel, but as usual, Wood's writing is witty and entertaining and you can't help but cheer for the plucky governess and her adorably wolfish charges!

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The Whatnot Review

My husband bought me The Peculiar last year as a surprise Christmas present and I completely loved it, despite being a bit suspicious of how good it could possibly be since a teenager wrote it. However, as I wrote in my recap of the previous book, Stefan Bachmann is a wealth of talent and I sincerely hope he keeps writing.

Bachmann dives back into his alternate London with Arthur Jelliby at a party celebrating the upcoming war with the faeries. The action quickly switches to Hettie, off in the Old Country with the faery butler, and a new character, a street urchin known as Pikey Thomas, who lives in London. Hettie's brother, Bartholomew takes the back seat in this adventure, showing up about 30% into the book and leading Pikey in an attempt to rescue Hettie. Arthur Jelliby, one of the protagonists in the first book makes only the most minor of appearances here. Most of the book follows Pikey, whose eye was stolen some time before by a fairy. Instead of a human eye, he has a grey eyeball that sometimes catches glimpses of the Old Country. When Hettie, in the Old Country herself, picks up a pretty necklace from which hangs something that looks like a human eye, a connection is established between the two. Bartholomew needs Pikey's help in getting into the Old Country to rescue Hettie and he is also comforted by the occasional glimpses of Hettie that Pikey sees.

Hettie, meanwhile, gets taken in by a fairy noble, who seeks to make the little girl's life miserable. She wants Hettie to be her Whatnot, or living toy of a sort. The girl doesn't realize how long she has been gone. There are references to her having been missing for years, but the exact amount of time is unclear. Hettie is smart, stubborn and resourceful so despite the twists and turns that her storyline takes, it's clear that she's a survivor, who is willing to sacrifice herself if need be. It seems that between the books, Bartholomew became the ward of Jelliby and spent all of his time and money searching for his sister. Bath, where the majority of the action took place, is barely mentioned, while even London takes a back seat. The Old Country is vividly described by Bachmann, especially the creepy, constantly changing manor house where Hettie lives for a time.

Eventually Pikey and Hettie's storylines converge, as London preps for a major war against the faeries that they've hated for so many years. Everything comes to a head as the faeries from the Old Country find a way into London. The ending is very satisfactory and wraps the plot up nicely, if a little quickly. I felt bad for the kids' mother, who seems to have no role in any of this. I wonder if Barth ever went home to check in on her. The Whatnot is billed as a companion to The Peculiar and seems to have wrapped up the plot nicely. I know Bachmann is writing a third book, but it's unclear if it will be connected to this world or not. All in all, this was a fast paced, enjoyable novel that lived up to the promise of the first.

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An Old Betrayal Review

Just about every November, there's a new Charles Lenox mystery released by Charles Finch. I recapped his last two last year: A Burial at Sea and A Death in the Small Hours. This newest book finds Lenox in London, continuing his very busy work as a member of Parliament. Since the last book, he has risen in the ranks to become a very important MP. He spends much of his time on the benches, in meetings and reading blue books of information. He is still happily married to Lady Jane and is a doting, although quite Victorian, father to little Sophia, who is mostly being raised by a nanny as was typical of the time.

As always, Lenox manages to find time to investigate crimes. He remains a mentor to John Dallington, former playboy aristocrat and current detective. Dallington spends the early part of this book gravely ill, which leads to Lenox stepping in and setting off the mystery of the chapter. A plea for help to Dallington leads Lenox to a train station cafe early one morning where he watches for the anonymous person to show up looking for help. He is surprised to discover that the man he was looking for was actually a woman. The woman sees someone who frightens her and flees from the scene before Lenox learns who it was. She was startled by a young man who Lenox speaks with briefly. It quickly appears that this young man is impersonating a nobleman who lives in the country and blackmailing the young woman, who works for the queen.

This one moment at the train station leads to a much larger mystery involving land titles, vengeful nobles and an attack on the queen herself. The woman from the station, Grace, plays only a minimal role, although it seems as though she would be more important. Lenox works with Dallington, while also meeting with two other London detectives. There's also a new investigator on the scene, Miss Strickland, who Lenox is convinced is really a man hiding behind a woman's name or using a woman as the front of the agency. Miss Strickland's agency shows the first hints of modern detecting, employing a fingerprinting expert as well as medical examiners to help solve crimes. Rather than one man acting alone, Strickland's group uses the talents of many different people. Strickland herself isn't exactly what Lenox was expecting but at the end, the surprise itself was a pleasant one with hints of a even more pleasant arrangement for Dallington.

Meanwhile, Lenox deals with Parliament, nasty rumors about his secretary, Graham, and the Prime Minister, Disraeli himself. His dear friend Thomas McConnell and his wife Toto are struggling with their marriage again and of course Lenox's brother, Edmund, makes an appearance. Like the previous books, the mystery itself is wrapped up around 80% into the book and the rest of the novel ties all the little pieces together and sets Lenox on a new course of his life, one which should be quite interesting in the next book. Graham's life also takes on a possibly fascinating new course, so I'm looking forward to seeing what ends up happening to Lenox's former butler.

I was interested to read in the back of the book that Charles Finch wrote a contemporary novel called The Last Enchantments, which will be coming out early in 2014. However, early reviews do not look too good. I'm hoping he doesn't abandon Charles Lenox, as this series always gets good reviews and continues to be engaging even 7 books in.

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The Rosie Project Review

The Rosie Project was one of amazon's best books of October. It sounded intriguing and as it was totally different in tone from Allegiant, I went for it. The novel is by Graeme Simsion, a brand new author from Australia, where the book is already very popular.

The Rosie Project follows Don Tillman, a socially challenged genetics professor who works at a university in Australia. Don readily admits that socializing isn't his thing. But yet, he decides that he is ready to get married. He wants a partner but is beyond obsessive about what that wife will be like. After a few dates, he decides to come up with a questionnaire for his future spouse, including their BMI, view on smoking and alcohol. He relies heavily on his friends, Gene and Claudia, a couple in an open marriage. Their relationship and Don's reaction to it causes a lot of unintentional humor. Gene is on a quest to sleep with one woman of every nationality. Because Don is so direct, he keeps telling Claudia what Gene is actually up to when he claims he is working or whatever.

Despite their own problems, Gene and Claudia help Don on his quest. Gene ends up sending a woman named Rosie to Don's office. Don assumes that she is a candidate for the wife project, which Gene was helping to sort. He also automatically dismisses her as being totally unsuitable for a variety of reasons (she is a "barmaid", as Don calls her, so she isn't intellectually equal to him, plus she smokes). However, when Rosie asks Don for help in identifying her birth father, he ends up spending more and more time with her. Soon, Rosie is shaking Don out his routines. Don had previous had a standardized meal plan where he made the same dinner on the same day every day of the week. Rosie quickly changes that as well as introduces Don to making cocktails, dancing and traveling outside of his comfort zone in more ways than one.

Don is quite the character. It seemed clear to me that he has Asperger Syndrome or some other form of high functioning autism. In fact, early on in the book, he takes on a lecture that Gene was supposed to give to children with Aspergers and their families and I kept waiting for him to realize, oh wait, I have all of these characteristics too. That does eventually come up in the book, but it takes a while. Rosie is a bit of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype but she is still a lot of fun and it's enjoyable seeing Don's world turning upside down.

One of the best parts of the book is that the author has links (at least in the kindle version) to all of the recipes that Don makes in the book. I'm dying to make his lobster and avocado salad! Anyway, this is a sweet, quirky romantic comedy. Apparently Simsion is writing a sequel. I'll probably read it although I felt like The Rosie Project wrapped up really nicely and doesn't really need a second book. But in any case, it's a fun read!

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Allegiant Review

SOME SPOILERS BELOW...

Last winter I read Veronica Roth's Divergent and Insurgent, the latter of which I did not enjoy as much as the former. Before I started Allegiant, I checked out The Transfer, a short story set before the series started that focused on Tobias on his own choosing day and then in his first moments as a Dauntless initiate. It's the first of three short stories starring Tobias. The Transfer was a good reminder of the Divergent world before I dove into Allegiant, which picks up in Chicago right after the events of the last book. Tobias is his mother Evelyn's right hand man, helping her control the city with her factionless followers, while Tris is in jail and faces a trial. This part is over quickly, though, and Tris is freed and approached by the Allegiant, a group of residents who want Chicago returned to the way it was, factions and all.

The Allegiant decide to send some of their group, including Tris, Tobias, Uriah, Christina, Cara and Tris' betraying brother Caleb out of Chicago in search of the people who left the video saying that they needed the help of the Chicago residents. Once they get out of the city, they are quickly approached by some people who take them back to a former airport, near the city, that is now the seat of a branch of the government. The Chicago crowd learns that years before this, genes started to be identified as causes of behavior and scientists worked to eliminate those genes. However, removing certain genes (or rather working to emphasize certain genes), like the murder gene, had unintended consequences. So people who had cowardice removed became aggressive and sometimes murderous. Those who were super intelligent often lost compassion. A war broke out between those who were genetically damaged and those considered genetically pure. Eventually the experiments started. Chicago, as it turns out, was a giant experiment to see if the genetically damaged would eventually be cured. Tris, as a divergent, is genetically pure since her genes started to heal themselves, giving her personality aspects of the different factions.

Tris accepts this, but Tobias is torn apart by being considered genetically damaged, a diagnosis that brings to the surface his childhood abuses at the hands of his father. This drives a wedge between Tris and Tobias (yet again), especially after Tobias lets himself get dragged into a terrorist attack on the airport by those fighting for the rights of the genetically damaged. Unfortunately this attack led to the near fatal injury of one of their group. Tris, meanwhile, learns interesting information about her mother, and gets asked to take a seat on the bureau's council. In that way she learns that the federal government wants to shut down the experiment in Chicago, which is one of the only remaining of the original experiments trying to cure the genetically damaged. The bureau's response is to wipe the memories of everyone in Chicago in order to reset the experiment and keep it going. Since Chicago is an experiment, video cameras monitor all the action there 24/7, just like The Truman Show. The Chicago group is upset about this decision, except Tobias, who secretly wishes his parents' minds would be wiped. Tris and Tobias manage to mend fences (finally consummating their relationship) and team up with their friends with a plan to inoculate some of their family members and friends in Chicago, while also attempting to steal the memory serum from the airport's weapon's lab in order to wipe the bureau workers' minds. This way they can teach the government that genetically damaged people aren't bad and deserve equality.

I had read before this book that it had a shocking ending, which I completely agree with. I certainly was not expecting what happened, given that this is a YA novel. Even Katniss got a happy ending in Mockingjay. The ending was certainly hopeful for many of the characters but not all of them make it to the end. Let's just say that the selflessness of Abnegation ran strong in some of the protagonists even to the very last moment... even when it mean sacrificing themselves. While Allegiant really only touched on the actual Allegiant group briefly and most of the action took place outside of Chicago, this novel was much better than Insurrection, the second book in the series, but still not as good as Divergent. I'm intrigued by the movie that is coming out next March. One of my friends reminded me about it today so now I'm excited to see it with her next year. Overall, Allegiant was a satisfying end to the series, even if it did have a shocking twist for the characters.

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Mad About the Boy Review

(Warning, mild spoilers to follow...)

When I was 19, I lived in Australia for six months. I vividly remember being upset that I couldn't pack too many books and that I didn't have a lot of money to buy too many. This was pre-kindle days, of course. At one point, I ended up in a bookstore where I bought Bridget Jones' Diary and Bridget Jones: The Age of Reason. I absolutely fell in love (like much of the world) with flighty, zany, unlucky in love Bridget. I devoured both of those books and read them over and over for a long time. Granted, I probably haven't picked up either book since college or not long after, but I remember the plots pretty well. I did see the first movie, but really wasn't crazy about it (although maybe I should rewatch. I do love Colin Firth) and therefore never saw the second one. I remember reading that Helen Fielding had written some articles around 2005/6 where Bridget was still involved with both Daniel Cleaver and Mark Darcy. This led to a pregnancy of a little boy, who ended up being Daniel's son. She wound up living with Daniel, but Mark had apparently offered to adopt the baby, suggesting that he was still around.

This plot was abandoned for the third novel, Mad About the Boy. Bridget is older but still a ditz who drinks and eats too much. She is a 51 year old widow (it's no spoiler to reveal that Mark Darcy died five years before the present story - Fielding revealed that in several interviews) with two young children, Billy and Mabel. Bridget could barely take care of herself in the previous novels and now she has two children to manage. Their life is happy but disorganized and messy. Mark left her enough money that she doesn't need to work but they live in a small, comfortable house where a nanny cares for the children often and Bridget spends her time writing. She is working on an updated screenplay for Hedda Gabler, which she mistakenly believes was written by Chekov instead of Ibsen. Her friends, still ridiculous, boozy and offering terrible advice, call her a born again virgin since she hasn't had sex since Mark's death. Bridget also struggles with school drop off and pick up, the remotes, passwords for all technology and social media.

As an adult, Bridget is certainly still endearing and her exploits kind of adorable in a hot mess sort of way. I tore through this book in only a few days, a nice change from how long MaddAddam took me (I loved that book a lot and because of that really took my time and paid attention to it). However, as someone who feels that their life is more or less together at 32, Bridget's flightiness at 51 is a bit exasperating. Get yourself together, lady! The book starts in the present and then flashes back a year to Bridget as a sad, overweight widow, who finally resolves to improve her life by starting to lose weight. Because I bought the original books in Australia, the weight check ins at the start of every diary page were always in "stones" so I never had any idea what Bridget actually weighed. Buying the American version of this book was a nice change. Anyway, after some false starts, Bridget manages to lose about 40 pounds and starts exploring social media. She becomes annoyingly obsessed with Twitter, something I can't stand in real life, so it was a bit irritating that Bridget was so fascinated with it. I was also like, go be with your children (clearly my own infertility issues made me a little annoyed that Bridget had kids at 43 and 45 and neglected them in favor of social media) and stop playing around online. Bridget also has the maturity level of a 5 year old as she constantly talks about farting and vomit. That gets old rather fast.

But that's Bridget for you. She was always a bit over the top and annoying. But she is also relatable (why is blogger insisting that I'm spelling this word incorrectly?) in a lot of ways. She's an absolute mess who needed Mark Darcy to manage her life (how's that for feminism?) and keep her in line, while also allowing her to lighten his life - which is why they were meant to be. Anyway, the book zips along taking Bridget from one crazy situation to another. Twitter introduces her to Roxster, a 29 year old "toy boy" (as an American, I kept saying "boy toy", "boy toy" to myself). While Roxster certainly helps to reawaken Bridget sexually, the relationship clearly has no staying power, much like Daniel in the earlier books. In the background, Mr. Wallaker, a strict, disciplined teacher at her son's school, lurks. Much like Darcy, Bridget and Wallaker do not start off well but it's clear that something is going to happen between them as Wallaker keeps showing up. So yes, Helen Fielding essentially recreates the Darcy/Bridget/Daniel love triangle with Roxster and Wallaker. And it ends much as you would expect the book to in a romantic, completely satisfying way.

My husband always makes fun of me for referring to books as breezy, but that's what this way: a deliciously comforting, fun and entertaining read that brings Bridget to a whole new, unexpected (for her) happy ending, one you can't help but feel that she truly deserves after everything she's been through.

NY Times Review

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