The Weed that Strings the Hangan's Bag by Alan Bradley

The plucky young chemist with a nascent obsession with death is back in action. The case is a little less personal for Flavia de Luce this time, but that doesn't stop her from jumping in a whole hog to get to the bottom of it.

Flavia runs into a coupole of traveling performers with some car trouble and before you know it, she's got them some help- and a gig. While she hangs around the TV star and his assistant, she finds herself surrounded by some of her town's darker history and then face to face with a murder. And Flavia being Flavia, she can't resist sticking her nose in and making sure all the knots are untangled- particularly the ones adults are ignoring, despite them being painfully obvious to her.

We get less of Flavia's sisters (and the rest of the household, come to think of it) in this installment- but when they're around, thier impact is greater. Clearly, as this series continues, there's going to be some serious drama on the homefront with some major implications for the de Luce family. I hope Bradley tackles that quickly, the forshadowing's getting old quickly.

Ulnike so many other amateur sleuths (particularly juveniles), it's nice to see that her reputation and track record are acknowledged by some in the communtiy- which is both a help and a hindrance, I hope to see more of that in the future.

My only major quibble with this installment is that it takes far too long to set the main action of the novel up; in a 348 page mystery novel, you'd better get to the central crime before page 150 or so. Unless you've got a heroine like Flavia to focus on, I can't imagine being patient enough to wait that long to get the ball rolling.

Another fun (occasionally hilarious) read, with a mystery sasisfyingly twisty, with just enough red herrings to get you through it. Highly recommended if you've read the first in the series. -Hobart N.