Book Review - The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Irrepressible Flavia de Luce, the young slueth, chemist, and poisoner-wanna-be, resident of the country house of Buckshore along with her two sisters, the bookworm and the beauty and her widowed father, along with the housekeeper who can't cook and the houseman damaged from the war, returns with aplomb in this mystery set in the post WWII British countryside.



Personally, I adore Flavia. I love her attitude and fearlessness, though as a child I was much more akin to her bookish sister. I love her love for solving crimes that occur in her small town of Bishop's Lacey. I love her for knowing every inch of her hometown library, and for naming her bicycle Gladys, and for the frightening experiments she cooks up in her upstairs labratory.



In this installment, a travelling puppet show has come to Bishop's Lacey, and of course Flavia gets involved. When a dead body appears on the stage mid-performance, she takes on the task of unravelling the mystery as well as tying it to an unsolved crime five years in the passing that had been passed off as death by misadventure at the time. With several twists, turns, and the odd red herring thrown in for good measure, it's a satisfying mystery with fantastic historic touches and a heroine you can't help but adore.



View all my reviews