F: Flavia de Luce

Flavia de Luce is the central character in a series (4 books so far) by Alan Bradley. I haven't found the mysteries themselves to be all that complex, but the character of Flavia is absolutely marvelous. Imagine that Eloise was raised by Sherlock Holmes and Jo March and you get an idea of what this young lady is like. She is clever, and a genuinely kind and caring person. Her sisters, however, are a trial and sometimes they get the better of her good intentions. These are often the funniest bits of the novels.

The novels to date are:
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag 
A Red Herring Without Mustard
I am Half Sick of Shadows (which is still in my to-be-read pile)
  
I'm not generally a fan of books narrated by kids, but Flavia is a wise beyond her years and an excellent observer which makes her an ideal narrator for a mystery. She also can't seem to stay out of trouble.

This post is part of the Crime Fiction Alphabet 2012 at Mysteries in Paradise. 

Bookish Characters

This week's prompt for Top Ten Tuesday is "Bookish Characters (these could be readers, writers, authors, librarians, professors, etc.)" I have linked to my post (or Lisa's) for books that were blogged about.

1. Ianthe Broome, the librarian in Barbara Pym's wonderful novel An Unsuitable Attachment.
   
   
2. Daphne de Luce, who always has her nose in a book. Consequently she knows a lot of things. We first meet her (she is a secondary character) in Alan Bradley's Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
   
   
3. Reine-Marie Gamache, librarian extraordinaire and the wife of Louise Penny's Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. We first meet them both in Still Life. 
   
   
4. Cliff Janeway (introduced in Booked to Die by John Dunning) is a Denver homicide detective turned bookstore owner and even though I read these mysteries decades ago I have fond memories of him.
   
   
5. Jo March (Little Women by Louisa May Alcott) was the first bookish character I loved and is still a favorite. 
   
   
6. Tricia Miles, the owner of a bookshop in Stoneham, NH who keeps getting herself mixed up in murder investigations. Murder is Binding by Lorna Barrett is the first of her adventures.
   
   
7. Karen Nash, the librarian/detective heroine of Killer Librarian by Mary Lou Kirwin.
   
   
8. Thursday Next, literary detective, whom we first meet in The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.
   
   
9. Mary Russell, the main character in the Laurie King series that begins with The Beekeeper's Apprentice. She is a scholar, a voracious reader, and a skilled knife thrower; an unbeatable combo. I also like her name.
   
   
10. Brooklyn Wainwright, the book expert and amateur detective featured in Kate Carlisle's Bibliophile Mystery series which begins with Homicide in Hardcover.