Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d by Alan Bradley

     I think we would be hard pressed to find another character like Flavia DeLuce, nor one we wished we could be ourselves.  I will never get a critique of one of Flavia’s adventures down as well as  Friend Laurie will, and knowing that I won’t even try.   Let me just tell you a little about this latest adventure.

     Flavia is sent home from boarding school in Canada but upon her arrival back in England she discovers instead of the grand homecoming she was expecting, Buckshaw House is uncharacteristically quiet.  Her father is in the hospital with pneumonia, her sisters and cousin could care less that Flavia is home and even worse, Flavia is not allowed to visit her father in the hospital.

     Devastated, at a loss, and only a couple of days until Christmas, Flavia and Gladys (her bicycle) find themselves roaming the countryside.  After a visit with the vicar’s wife, Flavia is sent on an errand to a reclusive woodcarver.  Flavia being Flavia, a closed door doesn’t mean much. She enters his quiet house and searches.  He is after all a recluse, so he should be home, right?  He is.  But he is dead and mounted upside down behind his bedroom door.

     Well, this is exactly what Flavia needed.  A new dead body and a mystery.   Now, go have fun and read it yourself.  You won’t be sorry.