Nancy A. (Chocoholic) reviewed on 12/6/2011 + 291 more book reviews

I probably should have really stopped reading this book and moved on to something more appetizing. Reading this felt like an obligation, and less like entertainment. The story is about Flavia de Luce, a 10 year old kid with an abnormal interest in chemistry and murder mysteries living in 1950's era England. Flavia becomes embroiled in solving the murder of a beloved puppeteer who is stranded with his emotionally-distant girlfriend in her town. There are a number of problems with this story; the first being that the murder around which this story is based doesn't occur until 150 pages in. My attention was starting to seriously wane and I was contemplating putting the book down when the murder finally (!) occurred. Another problem was the opening scene just flat out didn't make sense at all in conjunction with the rest of the story and was never adequately (or inadequately) explained. Now this is book #2 in apparently a series of 10 year old Flavia solves murders that experienced police inspectors can't solve, and maybe the first book makes much more sense, but I don't think I could stomach reading any more of this series. Best of luck to you.

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