The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

Flavia is back! And I can't tell you how happy this makes me! And, even better, I won a copy of TheWeed that Strings the Hangman's Bag from Library Thing!

In this sequel to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, eleven-year-old Flavia puts her vast powers of observation and her knowledge of chemistry to work to solve the murder of a puppet master whose vehicle breaks down in the village, leading to a pair of puppet shows in the church hall as said vehicle is fixed. The puppet show features, shockingly enough, a puppet that looks exactly like a small boy who, five years previously, was found hanging in the woods outside the village. Eventually, we discover that there is a link between these two deaths and the victims - a like no one would have picked up except the overly precocious, stubborn, but unceasingly charming and witty Flavia de Luce.

This sequel sees the return of many of the characters from the previous book, too, including Flavia's two nasty older sisters; their stamp-collecting and distant father; their housekeeper and local gossip, Mrs. Mullet, and their jack of all trades and PTSD-stricken war vet, Dogger. And of course, Gladys, Flavia's trusty bike. The cast of this second book is rounded out by the odd-ball characters one might typically find in a small English village, and we also see the return of Flavia's sometimes nemesis, sometimes hero, Inspector Hewitt.

Again, Flavia's penchant for getting to the bottom of things is aided by her love and talent for chemistry, which she practices in a laboratory in her family's crumbling mansion. It totally made my day when Flavia used a sample of a character's snot to perform a pregnancy test - and got a result! Flavia also loves the library, and once more she uses the seemingly quaint skill of combing newspaper archives in order to get information she needs to fit the puzzle pieces together. This time, she breaks into the archives, and cleverly covers up her tracks using clay, revealing once more her enormous resourcefulness.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag is an excellent follow up to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and I am so stoked that the author, Alan Bradley, has been signed to write a series of these books. Flavia is one of the best characters in recent fiction, in my opinion, and I am excited about reading future books!