***SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MOLLY BELLE WRIGHT, MARTIN FREEMAN, JONATHAN PRYCE, AND TOBY JONES***
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Banished! is how eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce laments her predicament, when she discovers that her father and Aunt Felicity have had her shipped off to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, the boarding school that her mother, Harriet, once attended across the sea in Canada. The sun has not yet risen on Flavia’s first day in captivity when a gift lands at her feet. Flavia being Flavia, a budding chemist and sleuth, that gift is a charred and mummified body, which tumbles out of a brick chimney. Now while attending classes, making friends (and enemies), and assessing the school’s stern head mistress and faculty (one of whom is an acquitted murderess), Flavia is on the hunt for the victim’s identity, time of death, suspects, motives, and means. Rumors swirl that Miss Bodycote’s is haunted, and that several girls have disappeared without a trace. When it comes to solving multiple mysteries, Flavia is up to the task—but her true destiny has yet to be revealed.
International Bestseller Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller
“Flavia de Luce [is] perhaps contemporary crime fiction's most original character.” —Maclean's
“This one is great fun.” —The Globe and Mail
"There are plenty of Flavia witticisms and musings. . . . And we're kept guessing right until the end." —The Chronicle Herald (Halifax)
“[The Flavia de Luce books] are delightfully clever mysteries. . . . Full disclosure: I am an unabashed fan of Flavia, equal parts sass, smarts and scientist. . . . Book 7 is fantastic. Can’t wait for No. 8.” —The Montreal Gazette
“These wonderful books set in small town England in the 1950s are great for mystery lovers of all ages.” —The Province (Vancouver)
“Flavia has a strong voice for an eleven-year-old girl, a character you wouldn’t expect a middle-aged man—Bradley started writing these novels after retiring at age 55—to be able to create authentically.” —Toronto Star
“A rattling good ‘girls’ own adventure’ yarn with an extensive cast of characters and suspects. . . . when all is revealed, the links, misunderstandings and secrecy have a satisfying click.” —Winnipeg Free Press
“Another treat for readers of all ages . . . [As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust] maintains the high standards [Alan] Bradley set from the start.” —Booklist “Exceptional . . . [The] intriguing setup only gets better, and Bradley makes Miss Bodycote’s a suitably Gothic setting for Flavia’s sleuthing. Through it all, her morbid narrative voice continues to charm.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Even after all these years, Flavia de Luce is still the world’s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth.” —The Seattle Times “Plot twists come faster than Canadian snowfall. . . . Bradley’s sense of observation is as keen as gung-ho scientist Flavia’s. . . . The results so far are seven sparkling Flavia de Luce mysteries.” —Library Journal
“Flavia, the brilliant, motherless, chemistry-obsessed, poison-loving kid at the heart of these books has become one of my favorite literary characters.” —Star-Telegram (Fort Worth)
“A delightful installment in the series!” —LibraryReads
Alan Bradley is the New York Times bestselling author of many short stories, children’s stories, newspaper columns, and the memoir The Shoebox Bible. His first Flavia de Luce novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, received the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award, and was nominated for the Anthony Award. His other Flavia de Luce novels are The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Speaking from Among the Bones, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place, The Golden Tresses of the Dead, and What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust, as well as the ebook short story “The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse.” Numb Were the Beadsman’s Fingers, the twelfth novel in the Flavia de Luce series, will be published in Fall 2026. He lives and writes on an island in the middle of the Irish Sea.
View titles by Alan Bradley
***SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING MOLLY BELLE WRIGHT, MARTIN FREEMAN, JONATHAN PRYCE, AND TOBY JONES***
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER
Banished! is how eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce laments her predicament, when she discovers that her father and Aunt Felicity have had her shipped off to Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy, the boarding school that her mother, Harriet, once attended across the sea in Canada. The sun has not yet risen on Flavia’s first day in captivity when a gift lands at her feet. Flavia being Flavia, a budding chemist and sleuth, that gift is a charred and mummified body, which tumbles out of a brick chimney. Now while attending classes, making friends (and enemies), and assessing the school’s stern head mistress and faculty (one of whom is an acquitted murderess), Flavia is on the hunt for the victim’s identity, time of death, suspects, motives, and means. Rumors swirl that Miss Bodycote’s is haunted, and that several girls have disappeared without a trace. When it comes to solving multiple mysteries, Flavia is up to the task—but her true destiny has yet to be revealed.
Praise
International Bestseller Nominated for the Goodreads Choice Award for Mystery & Thriller
“Flavia de Luce [is] perhaps contemporary crime fiction's most original character.” —Maclean's
“This one is great fun.” —The Globe and Mail
"There are plenty of Flavia witticisms and musings. . . . And we're kept guessing right until the end." —The Chronicle Herald (Halifax)
“[The Flavia de Luce books] are delightfully clever mysteries. . . . Full disclosure: I am an unabashed fan of Flavia, equal parts sass, smarts and scientist. . . . Book 7 is fantastic. Can’t wait for No. 8.” —The Montreal Gazette
“These wonderful books set in small town England in the 1950s are great for mystery lovers of all ages.” —The Province (Vancouver)
“Flavia has a strong voice for an eleven-year-old girl, a character you wouldn’t expect a middle-aged man—Bradley started writing these novels after retiring at age 55—to be able to create authentically.” —Toronto Star
“A rattling good ‘girls’ own adventure’ yarn with an extensive cast of characters and suspects. . . . when all is revealed, the links, misunderstandings and secrecy have a satisfying click.” —Winnipeg Free Press
“Another treat for readers of all ages . . . [As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust] maintains the high standards [Alan] Bradley set from the start.” —Booklist “Exceptional . . . [The] intriguing setup only gets better, and Bradley makes Miss Bodycote’s a suitably Gothic setting for Flavia’s sleuthing. Through it all, her morbid narrative voice continues to charm.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Even after all these years, Flavia de Luce is still the world’s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth.” —The Seattle Times “Plot twists come faster than Canadian snowfall. . . . Bradley’s sense of observation is as keen as gung-ho scientist Flavia’s. . . . The results so far are seven sparkling Flavia de Luce mysteries.” —Library Journal
“Flavia, the brilliant, motherless, chemistry-obsessed, poison-loving kid at the heart of these books has become one of my favorite literary characters.” —Star-Telegram (Fort Worth)
“A delightful installment in the series!” —LibraryReads
Alan Bradley is the New York Times bestselling author of many short stories, children’s stories, newspaper columns, and the memoir The Shoebox Bible. His first Flavia de Luce novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, received the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award, the Dilys Winn Award, the Arthur Ellis Award, the Agatha Award, the Macavity Award, and the Barry Award, and was nominated for the Anthony Award. His other Flavia de Luce novels are The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag, A Red Herring Without Mustard, I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Speaking from Among the Bones, The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust, Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d, The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place, The Golden Tresses of the Dead, and What Time the Sexton’s Spade Doth Rust, as well as the ebook short story “The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse.” Numb Were the Beadsman’s Fingers, the twelfth novel in the Flavia de Luce series, will be published in Fall 2026. He lives and writes on an island in the middle of the Irish Sea.
View titles by Alan Bradley
