This week I managed four books. (I've still not been able to do that whole sitting-for-hours-at-a-time thing that I used to.) Easily the best of the week was Alan Bradley's second installment in the Flavia de Luce series, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag. You may recall that his first book made runner-up last month.
Flavia, our intrepid sleuth, has inherited her great-uncle Tar's Victorian laboratory where she distills chemicals, poisons and potions to wreak revenge on her older bullying sisters. She also treks across the English countryside on her bicycle, Gladys, to help catch murderers. Not bad for an eleven-year-old on summer break. Charmingly characterized without being childish, Flavia is someone with whom you want to have tea and biscuits.
This is a slightly weaker tale than The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, but only the "mystery" in the story. The narration is spot-on and the descriptions are evocative without being wordy.
Somehow, a past-middle-age male Canadian living in Malta has channelled a precocious pre-teen budding chemist in mid-century England perfectly.
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