Flavia de Luce is coming for the holidays! For readers who fell in love with the 11-year-old British sleuth in one or all of Alan Bradley's first three novels featuring the clever chemist, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows is a welcome arrival indeed. As for newcomers, well, after a few pages you'll be under the spell of Flavia's precocious narration, too.
The clues begin with the brightly hued cover, featuring a skeleton wearing a Santa hat, with text and art snow-capped on a red background. Flavia, her father, Colonel de Luce, her two antagonistic sisters and the loyal staff are welcoming a film cast and crew to Buckshaw days before Christmas in hopes the rental fee will help save the decaying family manse. The drama mounts even before a blizzard traps the de Luces with the prima donna leading lady, a truly motley crew and colorful townspeople eager to get a peek at the celebrities. (And Flavia had thought her plot to capture St. Nick would be the highlight of her Christmas!) Of course, a crime occurs, Flavia exercises her sleuthing skills despite Inspector Hewitt's warnings--even as he scribbles her observations in his notebook--and after a suspenseful Christmas Eve icy rooftop climax, justice is served along with steaming tea. It all makes for another charming novel from Bradley which, along with its predecessors, is a perfect holiday gift for readers 12-ish and up. --Cheryl Krocker McKeon, bookseller