R E K. (bigstone) - , reviewed on 2/22/2012 + 1453 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 1

This is a most unusual but delightfully reading mystery. Flavia de Luce is eleven years old, the youngest of three motherless daughters who live with their reculsuve father in the family home, Buckshaw. Flavia is fascinated by chemistry and all its elements and compounds to the point that she researches and experiments with any that are intriguing, especially, poisons. One evening she eavesdrops on a heated conversation her father is having with a strange red-haired man. Later that night she finds the man dying in the cucumber bed. He utters only one word, "Vale," as he dies. Because of the overheard conversation, she thinks her father murdered the man. So do the police and he is arrested. Meanwhile, Flavia investigates the crime, uncovering clue after clue and fact after fact that eventually link this murder to one that occurred when her father was in school. Finally, she is able to put the clues together and discerns who the murderer must be but he comprehends what she has learned and ties her up so he can search for a valuable stamp stolen from the king's collection. You must read the novel for yourself to see how Flavia solves the crime and survives her capture and the murderer is eventually captured. A most entertaining read.

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