Admittedly a devotee of audio books let me say up front that I’m also a devoted fan and head cheerleader for Jayne Entwistle who is the voice of Flavia de Luce. Somehow she has captured the tenor and tone of this precocious 12-year-old’s voice - for my ear Flavia’s exuberance, audacity, naivete are all perfectly captured. Entwistle has won Earphone Awards and a Voice Arts Award for her narrations - rightly so! What a joy it is to press a button and hear Flavia come to life again.
With Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d we find our young heroine back in England at Buckshaw, her family’s rundown estate. Should come as no surprise to anyone that Flavia has been booted from Miss Bodycote’s Female Academy in Canada. Needless to say she does not shed tears about her ousting but simply wants to hug her beloved father. More easily said than done as she learns that Col. Haviland de Luce has been hospitalized with pneumonia. Of course, she wants to rush to his bedside and escape her dreadful older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne (whom she refers to as Feely and Daffy.)
Good hearted Flavia agrees to run an errand for the vicar’s wife which she believes shouldn’t take long at all. Not so. For instead of a routine errand she finds the body of woodworker Roger Sambridge who has been crucified upside down on the bedroom door of his cottage. Of course, Flavia loves nothing better than a mystery, she’s immediately on the alert and begins to investigate. She finds a set of Oliver Inchbold’s children’s books - rather uncommon reading for a 70-year-old man. She also finds a woman’s signature in one of the books. Flavia continues to probe and question observed by her old friend Inspector Hewitt. She’s puzzled but couldn’t be happier nor could I with the latest in this incredible young girl’s adventures.
Thanks to Alan Bradley for creating such an endearing heroine.
Enjoy!
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