Pink Julep in the Library: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

I just finished The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley, the 2nd book in the Flavia de Luce Mystery Series and it was even better than the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I love these novels! They are intellegent, inventive and suspenseful, keeping my mind engaged beyond belief while I'm sitting on the edge of my seat!

Told from the point of view of 11 year old Flavia de Luce, The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag is set in the small village of Bishop's Lacy in 1950's England. Having survived being held captive after finding the answers to forbidden questions about the first murder in Bishop's Lacy, Flavia de Luce, a fledgling chemist and all around clever girl is caught up yet again in the web of a mysterious death that occurs before her very eyes! While the whole town suspects that the death is an accident, Flavia knows better, using her scientific knowledge to decipher that the death was in fact a homicide. The story follows Flavia as she snoops, concocts and interracts with the strange characters of Bishop's Lacy to get to the truth, which once revealed is shocking!

While it sounds as those these novels might be children's reads, I assure you they aren't. I would highly recommend these books to anyone who loves a great story, colorful characters, humor, mystery, sleuthing and historical fiction/period pieces. I'm so happy to have read in the author's biography that he's currently living in Malta and working on the 3rd installment of the Flavia de Luce mysteries! I hope they make these books into films cause they'd be fantastic!

On a different note, you may have noticed I've removed my summer reading list from my sidebar. It wasn't showing up how I'd hoped and it's a bit redundant in my opinion, but I'm currently on schedule with my list and very excited about my next read, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows, which I hope to have finished reading by tomorrow!

Wishing all my fellow Americans a happy and safe 4th of July weekend!!!

xoxo,
Pink Julep!