The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches

I waited a long time to get the new Flavia deLuce book and then I kind of took my time reading it. The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches was kind of freaking me out.

Flavia was kind of freaking me out.

This book was good but it was really just a tying up of loose ends (Harriet and others) as well as setting Flavia up for the future. I don’t usually do spoilers when I write about books but here comes one…

So Flavia’s mother’s coffin is in her bedroom. Flavia gets the idea to bring her back to life and tracks down all the necessary chemicals with which to attempt this. She’s foiled, after going so far as opening the coffin and finding the will, by a pathology team who arrived to do an autopsy.

Flavia doesn’t freak out thinking SHE COULD HAVE SAVED HER MOTHER, she just lets it go? If she really thought she could bring her mother back to life, wouldn’t she have at least tried to get in there to postpone the autopsy? Wouldn’t she have shown a little despair at having been prevented from saving her mother? I know Flavia is an unusual person but… that was weird and freaky.

Also, here’s another spoiler… so Harriet has been missing for 10 years but when Flavia opened the coffin her mother hadn’t really deteriorated 10 years’ worth, at least it doesn’t sound that way… so that means for 10 years she’s been… where? And was only recently killed? That… is confusing, particularly as we begin to realize who it is the finger points to as her killer.

And one more… “Harriet, it was I.” = wah? Is that a red herring that Flavia’s going to eventually have to sort out or is that for reals?

So many questions and far too long to wait for the next book. There will be a next book, right? sheesh.