Alan Bradley's second Flavia de Luce Mystery, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag, comes out today. If you missed the first mystery, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I strongly suggest getting yourself a copy.
Flavia lives in a sleepy English village called Bishop's Lacey. In the summer of 1950, she solves her first mystery about the murdered man outside her window. She uses her incredibly dangerous chemistry laboratory to do some nifty CSI-like forensic tests as well as develops poisons on the off-chance she wants to kill one of her annoying sisters.
In the second mystery, Flavia has to uncover a murderer who did the dastardly deed during a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village church. I look forward to reading it.
The series and the sleuth bring back a fond memory of the original Nancy Drew mysteries with its setting in the recent past. The writing is free of the incessant irony and cynicism in modern kid/teen mysteries which is a pleasant escape, in my view.
Flavia de Luce Mysteries
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
(2009)
- The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
(2010)
Publishers:
- Delacorte Press, Random House, New York.
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