What Time the Sexton’s Spade doth Rust (2024) by Alan Bradley.
Good Reads meta-data is 298 pages, rated 4.14 by 4,212 litizens.
Genre: Krimi.
DNA: Little England.
Verdict: Go girl!
Tagline: She’s back!
Tweenage Flavia de Luce is irrepressible and her even younger cousin Undine is worse in 1952. When a longtime but secretive resident of the local village is found dead, it’s murder!
It gets worse. The harmless part-time cook, Mrs Mullet, of Buckshaw, Flavia’s home, is blamed for the death! The only question for plod is whether it was intentional or accidental. Yes, mushrooms.
That double whammy propels Flavia on to Gladys, her bicycle, to put things to rights! Again. Good. Hooray! She is aided and abetted by the ever so correct butler cum handyman, Dogger, when he is not suffering a recurrent bout of survivor guilt because of his three years on the Burma railroad.
This is number eleven in the series after a five year hiatus. Any reader is advised to read them in sequence. An unexpected and most welcome return. But no, I cannot explain the title, and I wonder if the author can.