Fifth in the Flavia de Luce series, this opens with the impending opening of the tomb of the local saint in the church crypt. Flavia manages to be present, thrilled as ever to view a body - except the one first encountered is that of the local organist who had supposed left the village in mysterious circumstances. It turns out, he didn't - he was murdered, rather grotesquely. So Flavia is off on another investigation, and this time she has a couple of rivals, a visiting private detective-botany expert, and a rather odd soprano with bottle-end glasses.

The twists and turns are considerable in this story, and a lot of subplots are introduced, some of which are left hanging, most obviously that of Jocelyn, the congenitally damaged son of a local magistrate, who lives an existence shut away from the world, but who, it turns out, was visited by Flavia's mother Harriet, who was lost in the Himalayas years ago. And the ongoing story of the de Luce money problems escalates when their grand house is put up for sale. Now Flavia has the worry of what will happen to her family, not to mention her father's manservant, Dogger, who is a mainstay in Flavia's life given her cold and distant father and sadistic sisters, plus the impending loss of her fully equipped chem lab and her bicycle Gladys, which she endows with an engaging personality. And the book ends with an unexpected cliffhanger.

The only thing that kept this back from a 5 star rating for me was that there was a bit of meandering with the various cast and their machinations, plus one sequence in the middle involving double doors which, despite two careful re-reads just didn't make sense: how could a door bolted from the inside be opened by a key from the outside? But other than that, there was a lot to enjoy, as ever. ( )

I really just love these books.. love the main character Flavia... and all the people that live in her village.. such a collection of characters!! ( )

I think this one was a bit too long for my taste, or else the whole Flavia thing is wearing thin. Still the same writing and characters, but I was hoping for it to be over. Somehow I found her to be a bit pretentious in this book. Some interesting developments pop up right at the end, though, and I'm stuck reading the next one just to see how it all works out.... ( )

Well. There are the usual concerns for me here (chiefly, why is an 11-year-old girl, even one so precocious as Flavia de Luce, not in school?) but it is a nicely developed murder mystery. Flavia delights in all things chemical, including dead bodies, so she is thrilled to stumble over one quite unexpectedly. As usual she sneaks about her hamlet, dodging the police (and this time, rival investigators) to ferret out a killer. Once again salvation may be at hand for her indebted and beleaguered father and their crumbling estate, if all the ducks fall in line just so. But, the very last line of the book (and I won't repeat it here), is a bombshell that will undoubtedly change the rest of the series. I hope I can pick up the next volume at the library before I go on vacation next week! ( )

A few thrills and chills along the way to a harrowing cliffhanger that the observant reader will have vaguely seen coming (or at least speculated on) since the very first book in the series...when will the next one be out??
Some bits a little squeamish. ( )