The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag (Flavia de Luce #2) by Alan Bradley

[Joni]

~4 stars

From Dagger Award–winning and internationally bestselling author Alan Bradley comes this utterly beguiling mystery starring one of fiction’s most remarkable sleuths: Flavia de Luce, a dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders. This time, Flavia finds herself untangling two deaths—separated by time but linked by the unlikeliest of threads.

Flavia thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop’s Lacy are over—and then Rupert Porson has an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. The beloved puppeteer has had his own strings sizzled, but who’d do such a thing and why? For Flavia, the questions are intriguing enough to make her put aside her chemistry experiments and schemes of vengeance against her insufferable big sisters. Astride Gladys, her trusty bicycle, Flavia sets out from the de Luces’ crumbling family mansion in search of Bishop’s Lacey’s deadliest secrets.

Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she’s letting on? What of the vicar’s odd ministrations to the catatonic woman in the dovecote? Then there’s a German pilot obsessed with the Brontë sisters, a reproachful spinster aunt, and even a box of poisoned chocolates. Most troubling of all is Porson’s assistant, the charming but erratic Nialla. All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can’t solve—without Flavia’s help. But in getting so close to who’s secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head?

I can't say enough about Flavia. She reminds me so much about my 11 year old daughter. Loves science, always needs to know and is curious about everything. I love Flavia's super-sleuth skills....she should be hired on to help the detectives solve the cases in the local township. I can't wait to continue on and read more (or in my case listen to) more about Flavia.

[Ellen]

These are such fun books. The audios are particularly well done.

[Karin]

I agree about the audios. I've read all of the books in this series and enjoy them, but because I find the writing uneven (some books are much better than others, and it's almost random how that works) I finally switched to the audiobooks. They are superb and smooth out those bumps quite a bit. I plan to listen through to the last book.

[LibraryCin]

Honestly, most of these books I find "ok" or "good" (3 or 3.5 stars), but I love Jayne Entwhistle as Flavia, so I continue to listen to them! I'm not sure if I would continue on if I was reading them.

[Barbara M]

Ellen wrote: "These are such fun books. The audios are particularly well done."

I totally agree. i've listened to every one of them and can't imagine not listening to these books. I haven't "read" all of the series yet but I'm hoping my library has all the audios or I may find myself actually having to buy the audible version instead of getting it at the library! I don't buy many books.