Second in the series featuring young Flavia de Luce, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag has our young heroine embroiled in yet another sticky situation or two, trying to uncover the identity of a murderer who dared do the deed in the middle of a performance of Jack the Beanstalk at the village church. As it just so happens, Flavia and her family, including Aunt Felicity (a new arrival to this series) are in the audience watching as the death occurs. Flavia knows right away that the death wasn't natural, as does the family gardener and general man-about-the-house Dogger, and she sets about finding the killer. But that's not all that Flavia knows, and as she uses her observations to help guide her, other mysteries, long kept hidden in the little village of Bishop's Lacey, begin to be revealed, perhaps not to some people's liking.



Once again Alan Bradley has done a fantastic job relating the story of Flavia deLuce, that child genius who was first introduced in his first novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Bradley has not let up on his excellent writing, indeed, in this novel, the characters all become more real, more fleshed out, and he adds some new and quirky characters into the village of Bishop's Lacey. The mystery element of this novel is much stronger and runs deeper than in the first novel, and the reader finds himself or herself this time with several suspects from which to choose, all with their own private motives for murder. But once again, the strength isn't so much in the mystery, but rather in the other elements of the novel. For example, there's the struggle of Haviland deLuce (Flavia's father) to keep the family home, Buckshaw. There's also the introduction of a new character, Dieter, a former German POW working on a farm in the countryside, and how he came to be shot down over England during the war. Then there's Flavia's deep-seated needed to find out more about her mother, dead since she was a very small child. And Bradley hits on the exploitation of things that maybe should have been a bit more private by television producers for Auntie, the inside name for the BBC.


Let me just say that many people complained about the lack of a true mystery plotline in the first novel of the series, or thought that the whole mystery thing was flat. Balderdash. If you can just sit back and relax, and read around the mystery and think about what you're reading, you'll discover that there is more to these books than some precocious child playing Holmes here. Bradley's captured a slice of time past and he does it well and most intelligently. I can very highly recommend this novel, and now I'm just sad that I have to wait a year or so for the next one.

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Flavia is the most delightful heroine I've encountered in a long time. With an absent-minded father, occasionally cruel older sisters, a gossiping cook, and a beloved gardner forming her immediate world she frequently leaves her home to bicycle about her small English town snooping as only she can. This case involves the electrocution of a TV puppeteer stranded in the village by a broken van. The audience is mesmerized by his afternoon performance yet by the end of his evening show, he's been murdered. Bradley's ability to create a real eleven year old girl is fantastic and I look forward to book 3 in the series.

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Flavia de Luce didn't intend to investigate another murder â but, then again, Rupert Porson didn't intend to die. When the master puppeteer's van breaks down in Bishop's Lacey, he puts on a show with his loyal assistant, the disarmingly charming Nialla, prone (by Flavia's estimation) to strange bruises and long, solitary cries in graveyards. While Nialla plays Mother Goose, Rupert's goose gets cooked, the victim of an electrocution that is too perfectly planned to be an accident.

Putting down her sister-punishing chemistry experiments and picking up her bicycle, Gladys, Flavia uncovers long buried secrets of Bishop's Lacey, a seemingly idyllic town that nevertheless has a mad woman living in its woods, a prisoner-of-war with a soft spot for the English countryside, and two childless parents with a devastating secret. It's possible Rupert Porson's van didn't break down so accidentally in this charming hamlet. It's possible the police won't be able to solve his murder most ingenious. It's possible that his killer may help guide Flavia in way over her eleven-year-old head, and to a startling discovery that reveals the chemical composition of vengeance.

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Flavia de Luce: an exceptionally bright, smart-aleck yet vulnerable 11-year-old with a passion for chemistry. She's one of the most engaging characters I've ever read. Living in a slowly decaying mansion in England, with her emotionally distant father (he's still grieving for her mother, lost in Tibet many years ago) and her two tormenting sisters, she sticks her nose into local murders to the exasperation of the police.
I have no idea how Flavia would compare to a real 11-year old but I don't care. She's wonderful, so bright about chemistry and the clues to catch a murder but then believing the outrageous things her sisters tell her about her mother. Some of her ideas about adult motives will make you howl with laughter.
This book is the second in the series, and while you could start with it, I think the new reader ought to start at the beginning. But no matter, you'll soon be caught up in Flavia's world.

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When I read the first book in the series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, I was charmed by the story and the humor, but I have to admit that thinking of the eleven-year-old main character sneaking around trying to poison her sisters presented me with a misgiving or two. Now that I've read this second book, those misgivings have disappeared, and it's all due to author Alan Bradley's characterization. The entire de Luce family has grown and developed in this second book, and Flavia's behavior is much better understood. In fact-- since her two sisters remind me a great deal of Cinderella's stepsisters-- I rather hope Flavia is successful with her potions. (And I'll have the pleasure of finding out by reading the other books in this series.)

It is pure pleasure to watch this little girl uncover evidence... clues... secrets... and then try to get the police to act upon her discoveries. She sometimes appears to be by far the most adult person in Bishop's Lacey and the surrounding area. I also love how she applies her reading and her scientific experiments to her investigation.

The wit, the humor, the twists and turns of the plot, and an incredibly bright little girl make these books a joy to read.

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This is my third read in the series. I quite liked the first and third novels but felt that this one was a bit lacking. However, I so enjoy Flavia de Luce as a character that I read to the last page. The story drags in the beginning and I missed some of the exciting aspects I found in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.

Another murder, Rupert Porson, renowned puppet master, meets his end as the show begins. Since he is also a well known womanizer who is cruel and heartless there are many suspects. In her customary investigative mode, Flavia checks out the suspects one by one with no help from the local authorities who consider her persona non grata. The suspects include the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood where a boy named Robin Ingleby "accidentally" hung himself a few years ago. There is Grace Ingleby, his mother, who may have had a hand in Porson's demise, and the pregnant abused assistant, as well as a former prisoner of war named Dieter. Flavia discovers surprising secrets about Robin's parents, Rupert Porson and others that may be motives for murder.

Meanwhile as she pursues her investigation she discovers that a visiting an aunt, Aunt Felicity, can tell her more about the mother she never knew. Surprisingly, the believes that Flavia resembles her mother both physically and in personality traits while her sisters continue to deny her right to be part of the family.

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Great book! Alan Bradley is a talented writer. I think I've read all he wrote and wish he'd written even more. This one, with Flavia de Luce again playing the lead role, came into here own as a "private eye" solving mysteries in her neighborhood. I felt a bit sorry that her father suffered from what could only be post traumatic stress following his time fighting in World War II. But Flavia showed herself to be independent and solved the mysteries in her area. Great writing!

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I loved the first book and I love the second; in fact, I think the second was slightly better because the character development continued for the main characters.

In this mystery, the body doesnt turn up until nearly half way through the novel. So the reader has the scrumptious chore of trying to figure out who is going to be the murder victim as well as who is going to be the murderer. The author also throws in some information about how German prisoners-of-war in England were treated; a little tidbit of history that I knew nothing about. There is also a little additional information about Flavias missing mother, presumed dead. And of course there would be a traveling puppet show.

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