A Red Herring Without Mustard
Ratings39
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings39
Average rating3.6
Flavia had asked the old Gypsy woman to tell her fortune, but never expected to stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer had abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? Had it something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites? While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon another corpse--that of a notorious layabout who had been caught prowling about the de Luce's drawing room.
Pedaling Gladys, her faithful bicycle, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers some odd new twists. Most intriguing is her introduction to an elegant artist with a very special object in her possession--a portrait that sheds light on the biggest mystery of all: Who is Flavia?
As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.
Featured Series
11 primary books12 released booksFlavia de Luce is a 12-book series with 11 primary works first released in 2009 with contributions by Alan Bradley.
Reviews with the most likes.
This story was fine, a bit of a stretch... These books are fine. They're good enough stories. I just don't care for Flavia enough to continue... Every now and then I'd get a glimpse of why people like these, but they're just not for me.
Full review, as always, at SFF Book Review.
I love Flavia de Luce. This was my least favorite of her adventures so far, but mostly due to the fact that I had a hard time connecting the clues and figuring out what the hell this was all about. I loved following Flavia throughout her investigation as she meets new characters and finds out new truths about the inhabitants of her hometown.
The overlying theme from the first books was missing here and that's why the book lost a lot of charm for me. However, with a heroine such as Flavia, it is hard to produce a bad book. This is still a 6,5/10 points for me.
The precocious young Flavia de Luce continues her detective adventures in [b:A Red Herring Without Mustard 8517008 A Red Herring Without Mustard (Flavia de Luce, #3) Alan Bradley https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388266441s/8517008.jpg 8586372]. Each of the Flavia de Luce mysteries seems to have a focus around which the story and often the mystery turns. In the first book it was stamps, in the second puppets, and in this one it is the smell of fish. I suppose you could say, there is definitely something fishy about this story.There is of course a mysteriously dead body for Flavia to puzzle out. But, there are several other related mysteries involving crimes old and new. And, there are a couple of (if you will pardon me) red herrings to add spice to the tale. All in all, another satisfying cozy by Mr. Bradley.
Dear Flavia De Luce,
It's not you, it's me. I was charmed at first by your precocious but naive approach to crime-solving, not to mention your chemical knowledge and derring-do. But I'm not good at series and so, even having spaced reading the three books apart by nearly a decade, the things that I once found charming now strike me as twee and a little redundant. Don't get me wrong: I'm thrilled that trimethylaminuria was the final clue to solve a murder and I'm in to Christian separatist sects but the story overall failed to catch my interest. OK, I lied, it's not entirely me: I thought that the story dragged and some clues were a little to on the noise (like the omnipresent fishy odor). But overall, I'm just not built for series that are all a little same-y. So Flavia, I still really adore your pluck and scientific detective work, but I'm not going forward with the series.
Love,
Me.
