The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

“Flavia is incisive, cutting and hilarious . . . one of the most remarkable creations in recent literature.”—"USA Today "
“Utterly beguiling . . . wicked wit . . . The real delight here is [Flavia’s] droll voice and the eccentric cast.”—"People" (four stars)
“Bradley takes everything you expect and subverts it, delivering a smart, irreverent, unsappy mystery.”  —"Entertainment Weekly"
 
“A pitch-perfect performance that surpasses an already worthy debut.”—"Houston Chronicle
"
“Discovering Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce books is several steps beyond pleasure—it’s a sheer delight.”—"Winston-Salem Journal"
 
“Wickedly funny.”—"The Times-Picayune"

"Flavia is incisive, cutting and hilarious . . . one of the most remarkable creations in recent literature."--"USA Today "

"Utterly beguiling . . . wicked wit . . . The real delight here is [Flavia's] droll voice and the eccentric cast."--"People" (four stars)

"Bradley takes everything you expect and subverts it, delivering a smart, irreverent, unsappy mystery." --"Entertainment Weekly"

"A pitch-perfect performance that surpasses an already worthy debut."--"Houston Chronicle
"
"Discovering Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce books is several steps beyond pleasure--it's a sheer delight."--"Winston-Salem Journal"

"Wickedly funny."--"The Times-Picayune"

Flavia de Luce, a dangerously smart eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders, thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop's Lacey are over--until beloved puppeteer Rupert Porson has his own strings sizzled in an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. But who'd do such a thing, and "why"? Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she's letting on? What about Porson's charming but erratic assistant? 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?