The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag, by Alan Bradley, Orion, $49.99.
Flavia de Luce is, without question, the most delightful detective ever created. An 11-year-old aristocrat gone wild, with a passion for chemistry, she’s a 1950s’ crime scene investigator who’s not above poisoning her sisters’ chocolates or snooping in the vicar’s study.
When a travelling puppet show comes to the village of Bishop’s Lacey, a performance of [itals]Jack and the Beanstalk[enditals] ends in murder, and Flavia streaks ahead of the police to unravel the crime. But how does it relate to the death of a child in the village years ago? And is Flavia unwittingly risking her own life? An adorable protagonist, an intelligent book and, I was delighted to learn, the second in a series of Flavia de Luce novels. Lead me to number one and bring on number three.
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