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As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust

The gripping seventh novel in the cosy Flavia De Luce series
3.97 goodreads logo

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( 29,554 ratings, 3,624 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust follows Flavia de Luce, whose life is upended when she is sent to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada, the boarding school once attended by her mother. With a strict headmistress, strange rules, and eerie happenings, Flavia faces a dangerous environment. When presented with a chilling mystery involving a withered corpse and missing girls, she begins to uncover the academy’s dark secrets and questions why her family insisted she enrol.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

Ideal for readers who enjoy cosy crime with quirky, young protagonists and atmospheric mysteries. Fans of M. C. Beaton’s Agatha Raisin, Frances Brody, and Alexander McCall Smith will find this series appealing.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Cosy crime historical mysteries featuring Flavia de Luce - the teenage amateur sleuth you'll never forget. Perfect for fans of Midsomer Murders and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

It all began with that awful business about my mother...

Flavia de Luce's world is turned upside down when she is banished to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada — her mother Harriet's old boarding school. With its forbidding headmistress, intimidating teachers and bizarre rules, adapting to Miss Bodycote's could be a matter of life and death.

But Flavia is soon on familiar ground when she is presented with a gruesome puzzle to solve. And the mystery of a withered corpse is only the beginning. Girls have been disappearing from Miss Bodycote's, leading Flavia to wonder what exactly the academy's true purpose is, and why her father and Aunt Felicity were so keen for her to enrol.

Praise for the historical Flavia de Luce mysteries:

'The Flavia de Luce novels are now a cult favourite' Mail on Sunday

'A cross between Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle and the Addams family... delightfully entertaining' Guardian

Fans of M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin, Frances Brody and Alexander McCall Smith will enjoy the Flavia de Luce mysteries:

1. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

2. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

3. A Red Herring Without Mustard

4. I Am Half Sick of Shadows

5. Speaking From Among the Bones

6. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches

7. As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust

8. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd

9. The Grave's a Fine and Private Place

If you're looking for a cosy crime series to keep you hooked, then look no further than the Flavia de Luce mysteries.

Each Flavia de Luce mystery can be read as a standalone or in series order

Series: Flavia de Luce Mystery

View all
  • I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
    All is not well at Buckshaw, home of Flavia de Luce. With the family finances in a parlous state, Flavia's father has, with deep misgivings, rented Buckshaw to a film company for location shooting. Naturally enough, director, crew and stars do nothing to endear themselves to the household—especially the servants—until, when a heavy snowfall cuts off Bishop's Lacey from the...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Speaking from Among the Bones
    The first thing I saw was a hand, and then the face, a ghastly inhuman mask... 'I do believe we've found Mr Collicutt,' I said. When the tomb of St Tancred is opened, no one expects to find the body of the organist, lying in a pool of blood, his handsome features covered by a gas mask. Eleven-year-old Flavia de...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
    For very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on the doorstep of Buckshaw, the crumbling de Luce country seat, was a marvellous mystery—especially since this particular snipe had a rather rare stamp neatly impaled on its beak. Even more astonishing was the effect of the dead bird on her stamp-collector father, who appeared to be genuinely frightened....
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
    Was their killer still at large? Could their killer be here at Buckshaw...? Two deaths, ten years apart, give Flavia de Luce the distraction she needs at a time when her family are more remote and dysfunctional than usual. Especially when a bizarre series of deadly events is casting a long shadow over everyone at Buckshaw. For Flavia, a gruesome...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
    The Flavia de Luce novels are now a cult favourite. Mail on Sunday CURIOSITY WON'T KILL THIS CAT... Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is back at Buckshaw at last, but her homecoming is overshadowed by news of her father's illness. Forbidden from visiting Colonel de Luce in hospital, Flavia busies herself in the village, but she soon makes a macabre discovery:...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust
    It all began with that awful business about my mother... Flavia de Luce's world is turned upside down when she is banished to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada — her mother Harriet's old boarding school. With its forbidding headmistress, intimidating teachers and bizarre rules, adapting to Miss Bodycote's could be a matter of life and death. But Flavia is...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
    I was lying dead in the churchyard... So says eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce - but soon a murder provides a gruesome distraction from her own death. A travelling puppet show arrives in the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey, and everyone gathers to watch a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall. But a shadow is cast...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Golden Tresses of the Dead
    The Golden Tresses of the Dead introduces Flavia de Luce, the twelve-year-old chemist and amateur detective eager to turn professional. She and her father's valet, Dogger, have founded a detective agency, Arthur Dogger & Associates, and unexpectedly stumble into their first case during the revelry at her sister Ophelia's wedding reception. After an eventful ceremony with a missing best man...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • A Red Herring Without Mustard
    'You frighten me,' the Gypsy said. 'Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.' So begins eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce's third adventure through the charming but deceptively dark byways of the village of Bishop's Lacey. What the fortune teller in fact claimed to see was a vision of Flavia's mother, Harriet, who died on a mountainside in...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Flavia de Luce series is widely praised: The Mail on Sunday calls it a cult favourite, while the Daily Telegraph describes Flavia as mercilessly addictive. Choice appreciates the novel’s unique blend of wit and intrigue, and Essentials finds it clever and gripping. The Guardian labels it delightfully entertaining, and the New York Times calls Flavia enchanting.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781409149460

Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 08 October 2015

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Orion (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 28.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 196.0mm

Weight: 331g

Pages: 416

About the Author

Alan Bradley was born into a family of storytellers who never stopped talking about the old days 'back home' in England - for which he is eternally grateful. He is a former professor at the University of Saskatchewan, where he lectured on screen writing. Alan is the author of a memoir, THE SHOEBOX BIBLE in addition to the bestselling Flavia de Luce series. He lives with his wife, Shirley, in the Isle of Man.

To find out more, visit www.flaviadeluce.com.

Also by Alan Bradley

View all
  • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
    WINNER OF THE AGATHA • ARTHUR ELLIS • DILYS • DEBUT DAGGER AWARDS “Wonderfully entertaining . . . sure to be one of the most loved mysteries of the year . . . [Flavia is] a delightful, intrepid, acid-tongued new heroine.” —Chicago Sun-Times It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an...
    Paperback
    $5200
    Available
    Ships in 2-3 weeks
  • I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
    All is not well at Buckshaw, home of Flavia de Luce. With the family finances in a parlous state, Flavia's father has, with deep misgivings, rented Buckshaw to a film company for location shooting. Naturally enough, director, crew and stars do nothing to endear themselves to the household—especially the servants—until, when a heavy snowfall cuts off Bishop's Lacey from the...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Speaking from Among the Bones
    The first thing I saw was a hand, and then the face, a ghastly inhuman mask... 'I do believe we've found Mr Collicutt,' I said. When the tomb of St Tancred is opened, no one expects to find the body of the organist, lying in a pool of blood, his handsome features covered by a gas mask. Eleven-year-old Flavia de...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
    For very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on the doorstep of Buckshaw, the crumbling de Luce country seat, was a marvellous mystery—especially since this particular snipe had a rather rare stamp neatly impaled on its beak. Even more astonishing was the effect of the dead bird on her stamp-collector father, who appeared to be genuinely frightened....
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
    Was their killer still at large? Could their killer be here at Buckshaw...? Two deaths, ten years apart, give Flavia de Luce the distraction she needs at a time when her family are more remote and dysfunctional than usual. Especially when a bizarre series of deadly events is casting a long shadow over everyone at Buckshaw. For Flavia, a gruesome...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
    The Flavia de Luce novels are now a cult favourite. Mail on Sunday CURIOSITY WON'T KILL THIS CAT... Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is back at Buckshaw at last, but her homecoming is overshadowed by news of her father's illness. Forbidden from visiting Colonel de Luce in hospital, Flavia busies herself in the village, but she soon makes a macabre discovery:...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
    I was lying dead in the churchyard... So says eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce - but soon a murder provides a gruesome distraction from her own death. A travelling puppet show arrives in the sleepy English village of Bishop's Lacey, and everyone gathers to watch a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall. But a shadow is cast...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • The Golden Tresses of the Dead
    The Golden Tresses of the Dead introduces Flavia de Luce, the twelve-year-old chemist and amateur detective eager to turn professional. She and her father's valet, Dogger, have founded a detective agency, Arthur Dogger & Associates, and unexpectedly stumble into their first case during the revelry at her sister Ophelia's wedding reception. After an eventful ceremony with a missing best man...
    Paperback
    Sold Out
  • A Red Herring Without Mustard
    'You frighten me,' the Gypsy said. 'Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.' So begins eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce's third adventure through the charming but deceptively dark byways of the village of Bishop's Lacey. What the fortune teller in fact claimed to see was a vision of Flavia's mother, Harriet, who died on a mountainside in...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

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