She Treads Softly: Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley

Random House Publishing Group: 9/20/16
eBook review copy; 352 pages
ISBN-13: 9780345539960
Flavia de Luce Series #8

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd by Alan Bradley is the highly recommended eighth book in the popular Flavia de Luce series.

Twelve-year-old chemist Flavia de Luce is back! After being banished to Canada and sent to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Toronto, Flavia has now been re-banished back home to England at her family estate at Buckshaw and the village of Bishop's Lacey. All is not well, however, when Flavia is met at the dock by Dogger and told that her father, Col. Haviland de Luce, is in the hospital with pneumonia. The reunion with her older sisters Ophelia and Daphne (Feely and Daffy) and her younger cousin Undine, Flavia is ready to jump on her trusted bike, Gladys, and sets off to see Cynthia Richardson, the vicar's wife.

When Flavia consents to running an errand for Cynthia, she is sent to deliver a message to wood carver Roger Sambridge. Once at his home, Flavia knocks but no one answers. She tries the door and discovers it is unlocked. Further investigation leads to her discovery of the reclusive man crucified upside down on the back of the bedroom door in his cottage. Naturally, Flavia examines the body and the crime scene. Her discoveries have her off and running on a new investigation

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd is another winning addition to Bradley's Flavia de Luce series. As with the other books in this series, the current addition is extremely well written and clever. Flavia is an appealing, intelligent girl full of wit, logic, and scientific experiments to help her solve the mysteries she investigates. Flavia, as most readers of the series realize, is a unique character and definitely acts more mature than you would predict anyone her age would act. (I tend to ignore her given age at this point and mentally place her as older than 12.) Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd ends with another cliffhanger, so be forewarned to look for the next adventure.

Disclosure: My advanced reading copy was courtesy of the publisher for review purposes.

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John Updike's six rules for reviewing:

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.

2. Give him enough direct quotation--at least one extended passage--of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.

3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy precis.

4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.

5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser.....Review the book, not the reputation.... Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys in reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.