I’ve been meaning for a while now to check out the Flavia De Luce detective novel series. They’ve got great cover graphics, so I’m always noting them on my strolls through bookstores, but until now that was as far as I’d gotten.
Now that I’ve read The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches, I have to say they’re pretty much as I’d expected: lightweight, charming, best read in spurts. Flavia, the main character, is quirky and charming, but quirks and charms only get one so far. I’m not saying this is a bad book; I’m just saying it’s a book to suit a specific mood. Taken in too-large doses, it’s going to be cloying.
Flavia is a character along the lines of Nancy Springer‘s Enola Holmes. Both are smarter than most of the adults around them and creatures of action. Both draw on wide bodies of eclectic information to get themselves out of difficult scrapes.
When you want to cozy up at home with a novel that will entertain without making demands on you, pick up a Flavia or an Enola. Just remember you’ll enjoy them most in moderation.