Flavia de Luce series
How is it a cozy: Well, we have an precocious amateur sleuth and a country manor home in disrepair. We have warring sisters who have lovely domestic rivalries. We have England. We have a well educated heroine who comes to have a connection to the local police.
Flavia, our heroine, is a brilliant amateur chemist who loves learning about poisons, death and decay. In the beginning of the series she is 11 years old, and by the 9th entry she has only aged a year–so the time span is small between stories. Flavia is in a never ending battle with her older sisters whose missing and presumed dead mother is remembered only by the eldest-a sticking point of jealously for the others.
The father, Colonel Haviland, is an at home but absent father, having fallen into a depression after the disappearance of his wife Harriet. Dogger, who once saved Colonel Haviland’s life and spent time in a prison camp with him, is a trusted and faithful gardener cum family retainer who suffers debilitating flashbacks of his imprisonment.
The series is held together by Flavia’s zeal for life and insatiable quest for knowledge. Flavia, with her unquechable enthusiam, perhaps is able to accomplish more than an 11 year old would in real life but we forgive this flight of fancy because the romp is so much fun.
Although the plots and mysteries are presented in a light and cozy mein, grief, lonliness, despair, anger and hatred are ever present. We are slowly, throughout the series, given glimpses into the family’s past…and how Flavia might fit into its future.
Because sex and violence are presented within a cozy framework, this series is appropriate for a young reader, probably starting at age 10 for a strong reader.
This is a series I love to curl up with – definitely a cozy mystery.