Young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist, lives in a rambling old manor house with her father and two older sisters, their mother having passed away quite tragically when Flavia was quite young.  Their father, dealing with both the loss of his wife and the downturn of his financial fortunes after WWII, is mostly absent minded or neglectful of his children, while still trying to maintain some semblance of the family’s past glory and influence.

So when Flavia finds a bird with a postage stamp pinned to its beak, she is intrigued, but it never crosses her mind to enlist her father’s help. Then just a few hours later when she sees a man sprawled in the garden and sees him take his last breath, she is both appalled and delighted, because finally she has a murder and a mystery to solve.

Using her bicycle and her knowledge of the village Flavia quickly begins gathering information about the stranger who died in their garden. However, it soon becomes clear, that someone else is involved and seems to be trying to frame her father for the murder. Will Flavia be able to reveal the identity of the real murderer before it is too late?

This is the perfect book to pick up and read when you can’t stand another minute of the news! Flavia is a spunky, energetic and funny narrator, full of wonderful insights and yet innocent and childlike in many ways. Her passion for science and her belief in justice despite the rather toxic sibling rivalry with her sisters make her a complicated yet empathetic character. Like Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, Flavia, although considerably younger, is a keen observer of people and village life and Bradley uses those observations to carefully reveal each clue to this well-crafted mystery. Bradley has written a whole series starring Flavia de Luce so that means there are many hours of good reading ahead!

Brenda’s Rating: ****(4 Out of 5 Stars)

Recommend this book to? Marian

Book Study Worthy? Sure!

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