There is nothing better than embarking on a new adventure with Flavia de Luce. I too enjoy riding my bike to an old cemetery while solving a crime. I just need a manor house in the English countryside. But luckily we can drop in and visit Flavia anytime.
It’s all well and good until the students become more interested in their own agendas than the coursework. When a corporate client with a sketchy past “hires” the the team for a launch party a crosscurrent of morals turns into a whirlpool of chaos.
The strength of the novel is in Francesca’s voice. Her memories of the hardscrabble town clawing to the side of a mountain are vibrant. The characters were drawn with a sharp, dark charcoal pencil — impressionistic in style but specific and bold.
It’s a better than average thriller, with a smart protagonist and a cracking mystery. There are psychological complications, a dusting of clues, well-drawn characters and a quickly moving plot.
Every once in awhile you read a book you wish you had written. This is one of them. Great Diddling lies somewhere in the English countryside between the Father Brown tv series, the headquarters of the Thursday Murder Club, and Cabot Cove.