Original Language: English
Publisher: Delacorte Press; First Ediition
Country: USA
Publication Date: March 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-0385342315
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Delacorte Press; First Ediition
Country: USA
Publication Date: March 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-0385342315
Page Count: 384
Rating : 4 stars
Book Blurb
The story opens with the immortal words 'I was lying dead in the churchyard' (spoken, astonishingly, by Flavia herself) and ends with a funeral watched by the De Luce family on a newly-installed television set. Inbetween, Alan Bradley weaves a hauntingly nightmarish tale that involves Punch & Judy - and in particular Mr Punch's nemesis, the hangman, Jack Ketch - a frighteningly realistic puppet show, and a hitherto unexplored corner of Bishop's Lacey known as Gibbet's Wood. The plot, beginning with the arrival in Bishop's Lacey of a travelling puppet show, features a grisly murder during a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall and reaches back to an earlier, even nastier crime centring on an ancient, rotting gibbet that has lain like a shadow over the village for years. For Flavia, undoing the complex knot that ties these strands together will test her precocious powers of deduction to the limit - and provide a shocking insight into some of the darker corners of the adult world.
My thought
Flavia is an extremely smart 11-year- old who living the fifties who just happens to be extremely good at solving murder mysteries. This one involves a rather talented puppeteer who comes to their village, his assistant/lover, and a little boy who was murdered years ago. Flavia is a master chemist and has an amazing ability to manipulate adults to tell her things that shouldn’t. Her two older sisters treat her horribly and she also spends a good deal of time plotting her revenge. I dare you not to fall in love with this heroine
