∎ Read The Weed That Strings the Hangman Bag A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley 9780385342315 Books

The Weed That Strings the Hangman Bag A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley 9780385342315 Books

Download As PDF : The Weed That Strings the Hangman Bag A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley 9780385342315 Books

The Weed That Strings the Hangman Bag A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley 9780385342315 Books

Second in the series featuring young Flavia de Luce, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag has our young heroine embroiled in yet another sticky situation or two, trying to uncover the identity of a murderer who dared do the deed in the middle of a performance of Jack the Beanstalk at the village church. As it just so happens, Flavia and her family, including Aunt Felicity (a new arrival to this series) are in the audience watching as the death occurs. Flavia knows right away that the death wasn't natural, as does the family gardener and general man-about-the-house Dogger, and she sets about finding the killer. But that's not all that Flavia knows, and as she uses her observations to help guide her, other mysteries, long kept hidden in the little village of Bishop's Lacey, begin to be revealed, perhaps not to some people's liking.

Once again Alan Bradley has done a fantastic job relating the story of Flavia deLuce, that child genius who was first introduced in his first novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Bradley has not let up on his excellent writing, indeed, in this novel, the characters all become more real, more fleshed out, and he adds some new and quirky characters into the village of Bishop's Lacey. The mystery element of this novel is much stronger and runs deeper than in the first novel, and the reader finds himself or herself this time with several suspects from which to choose, all with their own private motives for murder. But once again, the strength isn't so much in the mystery, but rather in the other elements of the novel. For example, there's the struggle of Haviland deLuce (Flavia's father) to keep the family home, Buckshaw. There's also the introduction of a new character, Dieter, a former German POW working on a farm in the countryside, and how he came to be shot down over England during the war. Then there's Flavia's deep-seated needed to find out more about her mother, dead since she was a very small child. And Bradley hits on the exploitation of things that maybe should have been a bit more private by television producers for Auntie, the inside name for the BBC.

Let me just say that many people complained about the lack of a true mystery plotline in the first novel of the series, or thought that the whole mystery thing was flat and so would not care to read any sequel. Balderdash. If you can just sit back and relax, and read around the mystery and think about what you're reading, you'll discover that there is more to these books than some precocious child playing Holmes here. Bradley's captured a slice of time past and he does it well and most intelligently. I can very highly recommend this novel, and now I'm just sad that I have to wait a year or so for the next one.


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The Weed That Strings the Hangman Bag A Flavia de Luce Mystery Alan Bradley 9780385342315 Books Reviews

Flavia de Luce is an eleven-year old genius with her own chemistry lab. She pronounces five-syllable chemicals with ease that ordinary people would have difficulty saying. She quotes Shakespeare, Keats, Trollope and Flaubert. She asked the gardener Dogger what did Flaubert mean when he said that Madame Bovary "gave herself up to Rodolphe"? Dogger said, he meant "they were the greatest of friends; the very greatest of friends." "I thought so," said Flavia. Though genius she is, she still is an innocent eleven-year old. Flavia helped Inspecter Hewitt solve a murder in the past, and now she is going to help solve another murder.

A puppeteer and his girlfriend have come to Bishop's Lacey, the village where Flavia lives, to put on a puppet show. At the second
performance, the puppeteer is electrocuted. Inspecter Hewitt, at first, thought it was an accident. However, it was Flavia who pointed out that it could not have been an accident, but,in fact, was murder. Flavia proceeds to investigate, and also to look into another death that occurred five years prior to the puppeteer's death. Flavia amazes the Inspector when she identifies the murderer, and connects the death that took place five years before with that of the puppeteer's murder. She explains exactly how the puppeteer's murder occurred. As I said, she's a genius.

Flavia lives with her father and two sisters who hate her. She is abused by her sisters. Her sister Feely, a corruption of Ophelia, called her into her room one afternoon. Her sister Daffy, a corruption of Daphne, was also there. Feely told Flavia she had to leave the house; she said she wasn't wanted there and she said they were going to send her to a home for unwed mothers. Daffy was in full agreement. Flavia was on the brink of tears, but held back. She turned around and walked out of Feely's room and closed the door behind her.

There is one character of interest in this book, namely Dieter. He is a German POW who works on a farm, and is an Anglophile with a love of British literature, especially the Brontes.. I could not understand why a German POW was still in England five years after WWII ended. So I googled it for information. I learned that in 1947, 25% of the land work force in England was comprised of German POWs. The British Parliament was not pleased and feared that the British would be viewed as treating German POWs as "slaves." They thus sought to repatriate them. However, by the end of 1948, 24,000 German POWs chose to remain voluntarily in Britain.

I highly recommend this book. It is well worth the read. Flavia is a charming, brilliant protagonist.
Second in the series featuring young Flavia de Luce, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag has our young heroine embroiled in yet another sticky situation or two, trying to uncover the identity of a murderer who dared do the deed in the middle of a performance of Jack the Beanstalk at the village church. As it just so happens, Flavia and her family, including Aunt Felicity (a new arrival to this series) are in the audience watching as the death occurs. Flavia knows right away that the death wasn't natural, as does the family gardener and general man-about-the-house Dogger, and she sets about finding the killer. But that's not all that Flavia knows, and as she uses her observations to help guide her, other mysteries, long kept hidden in the little village of Bishop's Lacey, begin to be revealed, perhaps not to some people's liking.

Once again Alan Bradley has done a fantastic job relating the story of Flavia deLuce, that child genius who was first introduced in his first novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Bradley has not let up on his excellent writing, indeed, in this novel, the characters all become more real, more fleshed out, and he adds some new and quirky characters into the village of Bishop's Lacey. The mystery element of this novel is much stronger and runs deeper than in the first novel, and the reader finds himself or herself this time with several suspects from which to choose, all with their own private motives for murder. But once again, the strength isn't so much in the mystery, but rather in the other elements of the novel. For example, there's the struggle of Haviland deLuce (Flavia's father) to keep the family home, Buckshaw. There's also the introduction of a new character, Dieter, a former German POW working on a farm in the countryside, and how he came to be shot down over England during the war. Then there's Flavia's deep-seated needed to find out more about her mother, dead since she was a very small child. And Bradley hits on the exploitation of things that maybe should have been a bit more private by television producers for Auntie, the inside name for the BBC.

Let me just say that many people complained about the lack of a true mystery plotline in the first novel of the series, or thought that the whole mystery thing was flat and so would not care to read any sequel. Balderdash. If you can just sit back and relax, and read around the mystery and think about what you're reading, you'll discover that there is more to these books than some precocious child playing Holmes here. Bradley's captured a slice of time past and he does it well and most intelligently. I can very highly recommend this novel, and now I'm just sad that I have to wait a year or so for the next one.