Heads up, I nearly missed a Flavia story!

[callmemadam]

Whilst browsing for something completely different, I found that a new story about Flavia de Luce had been published in December. The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse is a retrospective short story in which Flavia investigates a death at Greyminster school. This quote gives a flavour of why I love Flavia:
I was peering through the microscope at the tooth of an adder I had captured behind the coach house that very morning after church, when there came a light knock at the laboratory door.
She’s eleven! And here she is at the school:
I realized that I needed to take it easy on this boy. He was, after all, not much older than me. “Where’s the corpse?” I asked.

Unfortunately it really is a short story, which you can read very quickly indeed. Just saying, before you go rushing off to Amazon to spend 99p on it. I think I’ve read all the Flavia books now. Keen-eyed readers will notice a strong similarity between the Copper Corpse and Dorothy L Sayers’ short story The Abominable History of the Man with the Copper Fingers. You can read the whole thing online here.

Comments

[debodacious.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any Flavia yet - would this be a good starting point do you think? Or am I better starting at the beginning?

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely better to start with the first book (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie) as each follows on directly from the one before. Flavia stays eleven for most of the books and is twelve in the last full length one.

I think my link covers most of them according to me. For the full list in order see Fantastic Fiction.

[gghost.livejournal.com]

Oh, I missed this, too! Thanks for the helpful post!

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

You're welcome! It wasn't very well publicised, was it?

[gghost.livejournal.com]

No, it certainly wasn't.

[louise culmer (from livejournal.com)]

i find Flavia a very unconvincing heroine. THe Little Girl Who is Cleverer than All the Grownups is, quite rightly, a popular characeter in children's fiction, but I find her out of place in an adult novel. i would rather have a proper grownup detective. flavia does not talk or behave in any way I find probable for a child.