A Red Herring Without Mustard

I guess this is the last book I’ll have finished in 2011… but before I get to that I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas Eve!… and/ or… Happy Hanukkah!

A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Bantam (October 18, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0385343469

 

 

 

From Booklist

Stubborn, precocious Flavia de Luce seems old beyond her 11 years, but readers of her previous encounters with dead bodies and mystery know she has a vulnerable side, as well. Nowhere is that more visible than in her relationships with her distant father and her sisters, who constantly taunt her. In her latest adventure, the family is on the verge of bankruptcy. Father is auctioning his beloved stamps and selling the family silver. In the midst of this crisis, the irrepressible young snoop investigates the beating of a gypsy fortune-teller and the murder of a local thief, which seem somehow connected to a group of religious eccentrics, an antique shop, a missing baby, and a strange, fishy smell. Sound complicated? It is, but Bradley handles it so well you hardly notice. Buttressed by consistently quirky characters and an English country-village backdrop, Flavia�s chatterbox narration reveals the amateur sleuth�s obnoxiousness as well as her intellegence and irrepressible curiosity. The upshot is a spirited, surprisingly innocent tale, despite murky goings-on at its center. Think of Flavia as a new Sherlock in the making

This is the 3rd Flavia de Luce book I have read, and probably the best so far.  Mr Bradley has created quite a unique character in Flavia.  Highly intelligent for an 11 year old, and yet typical in so many other ways.. like getting even with her older sisters.

I love that her “buddy in arms” is a bicycle named Gladys. (and remember my “Nellie belle” fondly). 

I think each book has gotten a little more substance to it and this time he outdid himself, involving one “near murder” and a murder…and a possible murder all rolled into on book!  The only thing that hasn’t happened so far that I thought would have is that she would age a little with each book.

One has to admit to Flavia’s charm.  Her descriptive way about her.. if I may quote a modest line from Miss Flavia: There are not many things I despise, but chiefest among them is skin on milk.  I loathe it with a passion.  Not even the thought of the marvelous chemical change that forms the stuff…the milk’s proteins churned and ripped apart by the heat of boiling, then reassembling themselves as they cool into a jellied skin…was enough to console me.  I would rather eat a cobweb.”  A “not so” typical 11 year old wouldn’t you say?!

I don’t like to give much away so I will just say that this one was very enjoyable.. unfortunately I don’t have the next book but eventually I’ll be sending for it!  I hope that if you like mysteries and could use a bit of laughter along the way…this may well be the series you should try!

Before I leave I’d like to put up a photo of something I had made eons ago and I used to frame it and set it under my tree… the “lustful Lil” part is what I was known as in the DeForest Kelley Fan Club…for reasons just like this!..

..and so .. from Santa and me…  Merry Christmas to All….

….and to all, ….. a good night!

A Very Merry Christmas from me and Boo !!