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Content snapshot
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Violence
Some
A man is killed by a train; the novel deals with a child's grief and the mystery of her mother's life and death
Language
Barely any
Mild language
Sexual Content
None
No sexual content
Substance Use
Barely any
Mild content
Emotional Intensity
A lot
The specific grief of a child mourning a parent she never knew; the weight of family identity and the discovery that one's origins involve things larger than oneself
What this book is about
Flavia's mother Harriet — who vanished on a mountaineering expedition in Tibet when Flavia was an infant — is returning home in a casket. At the railway station, as the village gathers to watch, a stranger approaches Flavia and whispers something in her ear before being pushed under an oncoming train. The sixth Flavia de Luce mystery is the series' most emotionally significant: Flavia has always been defined by the absence of her mother, and this book begins to answer the question of who Harriet actually was — and, by extension, who Flavia is.
Notes for sensitive readers
Reader-flagged moments and themes that may affect your experience.
sixth of the Flavia de Luce series; resolves the mother's disappearance arc
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