As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust

by Alan Bradley

Part of Flavia de Luce, book 7

First published 2015

Twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce considers herself exiled when her father sends her to Miss Bodycote's Female Academy in Canada, the same boarding school her deceased mother once attended. On her first morning at the institution, a burned and preserved body drops from a bedroom chimney directly at her feet. Flavia, who combines her passion for chemistry with natural detective instincts, begins investigating the corpse's identity and determining when the person died. She must navigate her new academic environment while building relationships with classmates and evaluating the school's rigid administrators, including one teacher previously tried for murder. Students whisper about supernatural presences roaming the halls and several girls who vanished without explanation. Flavia tackles these interconnected puzzles with determination, though she remains unaware of larger forces that will shape her future. The investigation pulls her deeper into the academy's secrets while she adapts to life away from her English home.

Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, detective, boarding-school, academic, canada, amateur-sleuth

Vibes: atmospheric, dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking

Tropes: amateur-sleuth, fish-out-of-water, found-family

Setting: Canada, England

Period: 20th-century

392 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press

More by Alan Bradley

• A Study in Sherlock
• Speaking from Among the Bones
• The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
• Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
• The Grave's a Fine and Private Place
• The Golden Tresses of the Dead
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
• The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

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