Really enjoyed this mystery set in 1950 and told from the viewpoint of an eleven year old girl, Flavia de Luce. Flavia is the youngest of three sisters whose father is often withdrawn and absorbed in his stamp collection, and whose mother was killed in a climbing accident soon after Flavia was born. Intelligent, imaginative and precocious, she is a keen amateur chemist with a special interest in poisons. Flavia views the adults around her with a shrewd clear eyed understanding and is extremely adept at manipulating them when necessary, but is at the mercy of her cruel older sisters. Her one ally is the manservant at her family's stately home, Dogger, who has psychological issues due to wartime experiences, but is also very astute.

This is the second in a series which consists of seven books with an eighth due out this September. On the strength of this, I will definitely read the others. ( )

Not quite as good as the 1st one. ( )

Again, as with the first book in the series, whilst I enjoyed this murder mystery written from the view of the 11 year old prodigy Flavia de Luce, I found the self consciously "English" eccentricity a little too overdone, almost as if we were in a post WWII theme park version of the UK. The anglophile POW was just a step too far for me. All in all a pleasant read but I won't be seeking out the rest of the series. ( )

The Flavia de Luce books are just SO cute. Is it weird that I find an 11 year old would-be toxicologist and her investigation of murder mysteries adorable? For all the kids who grew up wanting to be detectives with best friends who were obsessed with botanical toxins (spoiler: that's me) there's something really satisfying and really nostalgic about reading Flavia's stories. The spooky Punch and Judy vignette recalled my favorite childhood books, especially The Magicians of Caprona, by Diana Wynne Jones and Mr. Punch, by Neil Gaiman.

I continue to find Flavia a totally plausible child protagonist, and I continue to be completely charmed by seeing the world from her point-of-view (my favorite: her sincere outrage at not being treated with collegiate equality by the police inspector.) Yeah, the mystery is a little thin and the ending is SUPER rushed, but that's not really the reason I read these books. ( )

It took me almost halfway into this book before I got to the stage where I didn't want to put it down. Maybe because that was when the murder happened. I enjoyed this one, though I wonder how long I will be able to take the endless precociousness of Flavia de Luce (11 years old? really? I already don't really believe it). Also I'm suspicious of little towns where so many murders seem to happen. However, for now, this series continues to be entertaining. I think the good thing about "small town murder mysteries" is that there is a constant sense of surprise, by the protagonists, that the friends and neighbours they have known all their lives can harbour such dark secrets. Because that always seems to be at the root of these things. In this case, the stranger passing through town may not be such a stranger, and his murder might not be such a mystery, when some of those dark secrets begin to come out. But I can't say much more without spoiling, so I won't! But I will continue to dip back into this series, even if I don't eat them all so ravenously. ( )