I found this one to need a greater suspension of disbelief than the others; the idea of a super-secret spy agency recruiting a 12-year-old, however bright, is just getting too far out there. And it seems she's not the only young girl as part of it. In fact almost everyone seems to be part of some secret society or another. And what's with the whole Harriet thing, it feels like everyone and their brother knows about Harriet, she has this godlike stature, but no one ever told Flavia stories about her mom? I did like that Flavia is out of her element although she doesn't let it slow her down much, but I also missed the familiar characters at Buckshaw. I also liked her detecting skills, it seemed in the last one she was just an observer, but there were some oddities I couldn't get around. A body in the chimney and no one notices? If the body mummified because of the heat of the fire, the chimney would have been blocked enough so that smoke wouldn't rise. And surely, it would have stunk to high heaven for at least a week or two, someone would have noticed.
Well...I did enjoy another Flavia adventure even if I had issues with this one. I'm glad she'll be back at Buckshaw next episode.

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