Helpful Score: 2
I love this series and I thought this one was the best so far. Very clever mystery.
Helpful Score: 1
The third in the Flavia de Luce series. Better than the second, in my opinion. The plot holds together fairly well, and you can actually pick out a couple of clues as you read along, so the ending isn't one of those ridiculous "where did that come from?!" endings. I listened to the first two on CD. I read this one on paper but I could still hear the distinctive reader's voice in my head, so clearly she did a really good job.
I enjoy this series but by the time the third novel rolls around even an 11-year-old who knows about fingerprints should know better than to leave them at the scene of the crimes she investigates. Flavia De Luce is a wonderfully unique little girl whose interests are far different from those of many girls her age. She loves chemistry, experiments in her uncle's laboratory which has become her own, rides a bicycle named Gladys which belonged to her mother and which is her companion on most of her investigative treks. In this novel, she has her fortune told by a gypsy which seems too close to truth for comfort. In her discomfort she accidentally sets fire to the gypsy's tent. Feeling guilty for her clumsiness, she leads the gypsy to a spot on her father's land to park her wagon. Later, she checks on the gypsy woman and finds her injured inside her wagon, finds a doctor to aid her and visits her in the hospital. The woman's granddaughter, Porcelain, appears, adding more complexity to the story. The two find a local layabout hanging from a statue. Now, she has two interesting incidents to investigate: who injured the gypsy woman and who murdered the man hanging from the statue. As she goes about her investigations, one cannot help but smile at the antics of both adults and the children including Flavia's sisters, who torment her endlessly.
This is the Best Flavia by Far. I loved every page -- and can hardly wait till it's my "reading time" again during my busy day, to see what Flavia is up to! Always a surprise. This is also a Must for any Chemist. Full of hilarious chemistry uses. And I am finding it oddly coincidental that it matches the exploits of Emma Graham in the Hotel Paradise series (4 bks now) by Martha Grimes. At times I wonder who influenced who?! Or is is all serendipitous?
Always a delightful read !!I do so love Flavia De Luce !1
In this third book in the series, her family's poverty finally hits home to Flavia. In fact there's more family background altogether, especially for her mother and father, which cleared up some questions I'd had. Amidst all the gypsies, curses, stolen babies, stately home creepers, and the smell of fish is a well-paced, well-plotted mystery certain to delight all fans of this series.
Another item that I was glad to make note of is that Flavia was mostly absent from that laboratory of hers. You see, no matter how well-paced, well-plotted, and well-written this book and the series are (and they are), this only child just can't warm up to it. The relationship between Flavia and those two torturous older sisters of hers just turns me off. Concocting potions to make her sisters ill, all three of them on a senseless hamster wheel of payback... if I was a child living in that house, I think I'd run away and join the circus.
So... although I can see the good and the charm of it all, I'm going to leave this series to its many fans. Long may it delight each and every one!
Another item that I was glad to make note of is that Flavia was mostly absent from that laboratory of hers. You see, no matter how well-paced, well-plotted, and well-written this book and the series are (and they are), this only child just can't warm up to it. The relationship between Flavia and those two torturous older sisters of hers just turns me off. Concocting potions to make her sisters ill, all three of them on a senseless hamster wheel of payback... if I was a child living in that house, I think I'd run away and join the circus.
So... although I can see the good and the charm of it all, I'm going to leave this series to its many fans. Long may it delight each and every one!
Flavia continues to be entertaining - a precocious intellect but still mostly a child's emotions. I think her relationship with her sisters is alternately funny and terrifying; she loves them, but all those poison revenge plots could go really wrong. She's at her deductive best in this book I think, bicycling around town on Gladys and ultimately lost in the underground tunnels of Buckshaw. I love her crush on Inspector Hewitt's wife, who was briefly introduced in the last book. There are more clues to the murder this time, I think, although it still caught me by surprise. Probably easy enough for a new reader to start here, although I think the flavor would be better by starting with the first in the series.
The idea that she keeps important clues to a murder investigation secret because the Inspector might interfere with her "investigation" is growing wearisome. I would like to see her collaborate more, not be such an obstruction. I no longer see her as a fun, smart role model, but a self-indulgent narcissist.
I want so much to like her I'll give her one more try, but I hope she gets over this trend.
I want so much to like her I'll give her one more try, but I hope she gets over this trend.
