After a five year gap, Flavia de Luce is back! It seemed that 2019’s The Golden Tresses of the Dead was going to be the last in the series, but here we are in 2024 with book eleven, What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust. If you’re wondering about the title, it comes from the poem At the End by Andrew Dodds.

In this book, our young heroine Flavia de Luce and her fellow amateur detective, the gardener Dogger, are investigating yet another suspicious death in the village of Bishop’s Lacey. Major Greyleigh, a retired hangman, has been found dead after eating a breakfast of apparently poisonous mushrooms – and the police suspect Mrs Mullet, the de Luce family cook, who had picked and served the mushrooms to the victim. Flavia and Dogger are sure there’s been a mistake – Mrs Mullet can’t possibly be a murderer! Before they can prove her innocence, however, they must try to find the real killer.

I enjoyed the mystery in this book more than in the last one – it was less complicated and easier to follow. Mrs Mullet being implicated makes Flavia and Dogger’s investigation feel more personal and relevant than usual, while the profession of the victim – a hangman – provides motives for other people to want him dead. Also, with the cause of death believed to involve poison, there are plenty of opportunities for Flavia to put her knowledge of chemistry to good use!

I do miss Flavia’s interactions with her sisters, especially as after fighting and arguing with them for most of the series it had seemed a few books ago that her relationships with them were starting to turn a corner. Feely (Ophelia), who got married at the beginning of the previous book, is still away on her honeymoon and doesn’t appear at all, and although Daffy (Daphne) is still living at home, we barely see her either. In fact, we’re told that she’s busy completing her application for Oxford University, which had me trying to work out the ages of the characters in this book! We were told in the last one that Flavia is twelve, but I can’t remember how much older her sisters are.

One character we do see a lot of is Undine, Flavia’s annoying younger cousin (I’m not sure exactly how old she is either). Again, Flavia’s relationship with Undine is improving as she starts to acknowledge that in some ways her cousin actually reminds her of herself. Unfortunately, I don’t find Undine at all fun or endearing and she’s really no substitute for Daffy and Feely.

I was surprised to see that the storyline introduced earlier in the series involving the secret society known as the Nide was picked up again in this book. Having formed a big part of the plot of book six, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, and to a lesser extent book seven, it has never really been referred to again until now – and, to be honest, I think it should have just remained forgotten. An espionage/world power storyline doesn’t really fit with the otherwise charming, cosy mystery feel of the series. Still, it meant several big plot twists and the return of a character I hadn’t expected to see again!

Alan Bradley has said that he’s now busy working on the twelfth Flavia book, so it will be interesting to see where things go next.

Flavia de Luce is back along with Gladys , Dogger and her cousin Undine and not forgetting the indomitable Mrs Mullet.
Flavia has to try and clear Mrs Mullet’s name after a villager is found dead by ingesting poisonous mushrooms allegedly cooked for him by Flavia’s housekeeper .
No one in the De Luce household believes that Mrs Mullet could do such a thing and Flavia begins to untangle a sticky web of deceit and strange goings on .
The greatest surprise is who is at the centre of the web .
As always the writing is quick witted , fast paced and leaves the reader eagerly awaiting the next instalment of Flavia’s life and all the chaos that ensues.
A great read with a few surprises and I look forward to what the future holds for Miss De Luce .
Thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group.

Was looking forward to a new Flavia book having though that the series had ended a few years ago. I really wanted to love it, but couldn't connect with the story at all. Apart from Dogger, everyone seemed incredibly annoying, and the spoiler event that occurs actually left me fuming. Worth reading for Flavia's realisation at the end and the scenes with Dogger.

Sadly this was a DNF for me. It was a refreshing change to have a young heroine in this murder mystery, however, I found her to be quite like an Anne of Green gables/Pollyanna mix, and her rambling soon got too tiresome. I got to somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 through the book, and felt hardly any progress had been made, yet I’d read endless descriptions of surroundings, and random quotes which popped into our heroines head, alongside other random thoughts, and sadly it all got too much as it ended up feeling as though I was listening to be grandma try to tell one of her tales which only has enough material for 5 minutes, but always seems to be stretched out to half an hour

Having read numerous glowing reviews of this series over the years, I was looking forward with great anticipation to reading my first by Alan Bradley in his Flavia de Luce series. Flavia here is 12 years old, having suffered bereavement that she describes as having left her living in a shattered looking glass world. She has inherited the family's large Buckshaw estate, and is responsible for the young Undine, a terror and flagrantly larger than life uncontrollable version of herself, her sister Feely is no longer around, whilst her other sibling, Daffy, a bookworm is planning to leave for university.

Flavia cycles furiously on Gladys, returning home, where Inspector Hewitt has the housekeeper, Mrs Mullet, under suspicion of poisoning Major Greyleigh, a former hangman, with mushrooms, a woman with dramatic skills and talented ears for hearing that is so useful. Flavia, for whom becoming a woman is not part of her plan and becoming a lady is even worse, sets out to prove the housekeeper's innocence, with the help of Dogger with his war background, her mainstay, handyman, gardener, protector, advisor, and friend. There to support her is her fascination and knowledge of chemistry, her chemistry lab is her kingdom, in a case that takes a darker turn that is to shock her. It is the unruly precocious Undine who comes across leads that escape Flavia and the police, and is Mrs Mullet revealing all she knows?

Facing grave dangers, Flavia enters the strange territory of military secrets, where duty and the Official Secrets Act holds the higher rank. This was an interesting read at times, but for me this felt like a book for readers younger than myself. Perhaps this is because I have missed others in the series that would have ensured that I had the historical understanding and investment in Flavia that I simply did not have here. I found myself often irritated by Flavia, so am unlikely to pursue this series further. Given so many readers love this, I would urge readers to read other more positive reviews. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

First of all, I absolutely adore the Flavia de Luce series. A few years ago I picked up The Golden Tresses of the Dead, fell in love with Flavia de Luce and her circle of family and friends, and promptly devoured the entire series over the course of a few days.

In What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust Bradley again combines dark humour with grisly crime as our teenage heroine, Flavia de Luce, still saddled with her pesky young cousin, must help trusted family servant Mrs Mullet clear her name when a villager is horribly murdered. As always Bradley writes with a light hand, skillfully combining chemistry with eccentric villagers and a suprisingly insightful exploration of family ties and sisterly tension. The book moves at a terrific pace as Flavia attempts to solve the crime, much to Dogger's pride and the Inspector's fury. However, midway through the book, Bradley suddenly takes the series in an entirely new direction, Admittedly, hints of a greater conspiracy/network have been woven into the background of the previous books but now this side-plot comes to the fore. I have to admit that I found this change slightly jarring and I'll be interested to see how Bradley handles this in any future books!

As always a cracking yarn so huge thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for this ARC.

I have been an avid reader of the Flavia books since the first day the first book was released, and was overjoyed to see another was being released. These books are meant to be devoured and this one is no exception. It took one day to read as,I could not put the book down, I just had to know who the murderer was and why. There are not too many books that are not spoilt by swearing but Alan just seems to find a way around this and I love Flavia's crazy sayings and her precocious ways. Throw in Undine and the sparks fly whilst science helps to determine the murderer.
Why this has not been made into a TV series I have no idea.
This is the just read of the year.
A fantastic book.