Order of Flavia De Luce Books
Flavia de Luce is the central character in a series of mystery novels by Canadian novelist Alan Bradley. Flavia is an 11 year-old girl who is fascinated by chemistry. Also known as The Buckshaw Chronicles, the series is set in 1950s England. The television rights to the series have been optioned by Sam Mendes.
Alan Bradley debuted his Flavia de Luce character in 2009 with the novel The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. The series concluded with the tenth book in the series, The Golden Tresses of the Dead, in 2019. Below is a list of Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce series in order, sorted by date of publication:
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Publication Order of Flavia de Luce Books
| The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie | (2009) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag | (2010) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| A Red Herring Without Mustard | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| I Am Half-Sick of Shadows | (2011) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Speaking from Among the Bones | (2012) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse | (2014) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust | (2015) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd | (2016) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Grave's a Fine and Private Place | (2017) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| The Golden Tresses of the Dead | (2019) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust | (2024) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
If You Like Flavia De Luce Books, You’ll Love…
Flavia de Luce Synopses: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley is the first novel in the Flavia de Luce series. The summer of 1950 has been standard fare for eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce: bicycle trips around the village, keeping an eye on her neighbours, never-ending battles with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and making poisonous concoctions while plotting revenge in their home’s abandoned Victorian chemistry lab, which Flavia has laid claim to.
But then a series of mysterious events gets Flavia’s attention: A dead bird is found on the doormat, a postage stamp oddly attached to its beak. A mysterious late-night visitor argues with her aloof father, Colonel de Luce, behind closed doors. And in the early morning Flavia finds a red-headed stranger lying in the cucumber patch and watches him take his last breath. For Flavia, the summer begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw: “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
Did poisoning lead to the stranger’s demise? There was a piece missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia decides to solve the crime herself — even if it means withholding information from the village police, in order to protect her family. But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to clear his name. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into her own family’s dark past.
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag is the second book in the Flavia de Luce series. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce didn’t set out to investigate another murder — but then, Rupert Porson didn’t set out to be murdered. When the master puppeteer’s van breaks down in the village of Bishop’s Lacey, Flavia is front and centre to help Rupert and his charming assistant, Nialla, put together a performance in the local church in order to pay the bill for its repairs. But even as they set up camp and set the stage for Jack and the Beanstalk, there are signs that something just isn’t right, such as the odd happenings in nearby Gibbet Wood — where young Robin Ingleby was found hanging only five years earlier.
It’s enough to set Flavia’s detective instincts off. What are Rupert and Nialla trying to hide? Why are Robin’s parents acting so strangely? And what does Mad Meg mean when she says the Devil has come back to Gibbet Wood? Porson’s Puppets begins their show at St. Tancred’s — but as Nialla plays Mother Goose, Rupert’s goose gets cooked as the victim of an electrocution that seems too meticulously planned to be an accident.
Flavia looks to uncover long-buried secrets of Bishop’s Lacey, the seemingly idyllic village that is nevertheless home to a madwoman living in its woods, a prisoner-of-war who can’t get enough of the English countryside, and two childless parents with a devastating secret. While the local police do their best to keep up with Flavia in solving Rupert’s murder, his killer may pull Flavia in way over her head.
#9. A Grave’s a Fine and Private Place (2017)
Wonderful Series!
There are two more not in the above list
The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse (Flavia de Luce #6.5)
As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust (Flavia de Luce, #7)
best series ever!!!!!