I Am Half-Sick of Shadows - Alan Bradley

Title: I Am Half-Sick of Shadows (Flavia de Luce #4)
Author: Alan Bradley
Pages: 288
Published: 2012 (originally published 2011)
Challenges: Christmas Spirit
Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery
Edition: Paperback
Source: Personal library

Description: Colonel de Luce, in desperate need of funds, rents his beloved estate of Buckshaw to a film company. They will be shooting a movie over the Christmas holidays, filming scenes in the decaying manse with a reclusive star. She is widely despised, so it is to no one's surprise when she turns up murdered, strangled by a length of film from her own movies! With a blizzard raging outside and Buckshaw locked in, the house is full of suspects. But Flavia de Luce is more than ready to put aside her investigations into the true identity of Father Christmas to solve this yuletide country-house murder. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: Really liked it, as usual.  I am a big fan of this series and so glad I have made the effort to catch up with the series.  I like how the author has used characters from the previous book in this one and how he incorporated each of a portion of the characters from the previous 3 books, but there is enough that one doesn't really have to read the other books, but it is strongly suggested that one does read the other 3 previous books to understand the characters a little better than if one jumps in right away.

Once I got into the book, which was pretty quick, I found it fairly easy to get into the book and finish it quickly (I got sick towards the end of the book and had to put it aside for a bit as I for some reason am unable to read lots while I am not feeling well; I had a cold, if you are wondering).  And also loved the fact that it took place around Christmas Day.

Bottom line: While the story is a stand-alone, there are elements of the previous three books, that while not exactly crucial to the book, are somewhat important to have a background of (I had forgot some of them).  I would recommend the book to those individuals that like cozy mystery series books and like something light and fairly easy to read at times and also to those that have read the previous Flavia books.  Recommended.

Rating: 4.5/5

Pages for 2013: 17,953

A Red Herring Without Mustard - Alan Bradley

Title: A Red Herring Without Mustard
Author: Alan Bradley
Pages: 416
Published: 2011
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Challenges: Historical Fiction, Off the Shelf, TBR Pile, Embarrassment of Riches
Edition: Paperback
Source: Personal Collection

Description: “You frighten me,” the old Gypsy woman says. “Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.” So begins eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce’s third adventure through the charming but deceptively dark byways of the village of Bishop’s Lacey. The fortune teller also claims to see a woman who is lost and needs help to get home—and Flavia knows it must be her mother Harriet, who died when Flavia was less than a year old. The Gypsy’s vision opens up old wounds for our precocious yet haunted heroine, and sets her mind racing in search of what it could mean.
 
When Flavia later goes to visit the Gypsy at her encampment, she certainly doesn’t expect to find the poor old woman lying near death in her caravan, bludgeoned in the wee hours. Was it an act of retribution by those who thought that the woman had abducted a local child years before? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how can she prove this crime is connected to the missing baby? Did it have 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 a corpse—that of a notorious layabout and bully she had only recently caught prowling about Buckshaw. The body hangs from a statue of Poseidon in Flavia’s very own backyard, and our unflappable sleuth knows it’s up to her to figure out the significance. Pedalling her faithful bicycle, Gladys, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers secrets both long-buried and freshly stowed—the dodgy dealings of a local ironworks, the truth behind the Hobblers’ secret meetings, her own ancestor’s ambitious plans—all the while exhausting the patience of Inspector Hewitt. But it’s not long before the evidence starts falling into place, and Flavia must take drastic action to prevent another violent attack.  (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: As one could well imagine, I also loved this one again.  While there is more of Flavia's chemistry wizardry in this book, it isn't as much as the first two books, but you do get is more of her curiosity about the world around her and how she will do anything to get at the truth, even if it does meaning having to lie from time to time in order to solve the crime.  Once again I could hardly get myself away from the book and finished the book in less than a week and somehow I am eagerly anticipating reading the next book, but I do have other books to read.

Bottom line: While it is a part of a series, you can read the book as a stand-alone and still enjoy it just much.

Rating: 4/5

Pages for 2013: 5094

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag - Alan Bradley

Title: The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
Author: Alan Bradley
Pages: 368
Published: 2010
Genre: Fiction, Mystery
Challenges: 2013 TBR Pile Challenge
Edition: Paperback
Source: Personal

Description: Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce didn’t intend to investigate another murder — but then, Rupert Porson didn’t intend to die. When the master puppeteer’s van breaks down in the village of Bishop’s Lacey, Flavia is front and centre to help Rupert and his charming assistant, Nialla, put together a performance in the local church to help pay the repair bill. But even as the newcomers set up camp and set the stage for Jack and the Beanstalk, there are signs that something just isn’t right: Nialla’s strange bruises and solitary cries in the churchyard, Rupert’s unexplained disappearances and a violent argument with his BBC producer, the disturbing atmosphere at Culverhouse Farm, and the peculiar goings-on in nearby Gibbet Wood — where young Robin Ingleby was found hanging just five years before.

It’s enough to set Flavia’s detective instincts tingling and her chemistry lab humming. What are Rupert and Nialla trying to hide? Why are Grace and Gordon Ingleby, Robin’s still-grieving parents, acting so strangely? And what does Mad Meg mean when she says the Devil has come back to Gibbet Wood? Then it’s showtime for Porson’s Puppets at St. Tancred’s — but as Nialla plays Mother Goose, Rupert’s goose gets cooked as the victim of an electrocution that is too perfectly planned to be an accident. Someone had set the stage for murder.

Putting down her sister-punishing experiments and picking up her trusty bicycle, Gladys, Flavia uncovers long-buried secrets of Bishop’s Lacey, the seemingly idyllic village that is nevertheless home to a madwoman living in its woods, a prisoner-of-war with a soft spot for the English countryside, and two childless parents with a devastating secret. While the local police do their best to keep up with Flavia in solving Rupert’s murder, his killer may pull Flavia in way over her head, to a startling discovery that reveals the chemical composition of vengeance. (via Goodreads.com)

Thoughts: I enjoyed this one, but probably not as much as I liked the first book. Maybe it was the fact that the book seemed to take awhile for the action in the book to start up and seemed to be a bit dry for a bit.  Oh, it wasn't that I wasn't intrigued with how the book was going to play out, it was just that since the first book the action was rather quick from the get-go, that I was expecting the action to start right away.  Flavia of course was up to her regular schemes and sometimes I wonder if her father should have kept a closer eye on her and what she was doing and whenever her mom was mentioned, I was curious if there was anything more that would lead us to know if Harriet is still alive, which I think she still is, and if she really is Flavia's mom, I still wonder if she is.  Overall, the book was good and well written and makes me want to see a movie version of the books come to the screen.

Bottom line: Recommend the book to those that have read the first book, as a number of the characters that are mentioned are introduced in the first book, even though it could be read as a stand-alone.

Rating: 4/5

Pages for 2013: 2312

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

Title: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Author: Alan Bradley
Pages: 400
Published: 2009
Genre: Mystery, Fiction
Challenges: None
Edition: Paperback
Source: Personal

Description: The summer of 1950 hasn’t offered up anything out of the ordinary for eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce: bicycle explorations around the village, keeping tabs on her neighbours, relentless battles with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and brewing up poisonous concoctions while plotting revenge in their home’s abandoned Victorian chemistry lab, which Flavia has claimed for her own.

But then a series of mysterious events gets Flavia’s attention: A dead bird is found on the doormat, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. A mysterious late-night visitor argues with her aloof father, Colonel de Luce, behind closed doors. And in the early morning Flavia finds a red-headed stranger lying in the cucumber patch and watches him take his dying breath. For Flavia, the summer begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw: “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

Did the stranger die of poisoning? There was a piece missing from Mrs. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia commits herself to solving the crime — even if it means keeping information from the village police, in order to protect her family. But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to free him of suspicion. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luces’ murky past. (via Goodreads)

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this read and considering that I have been reading some pretty dense books and that this has been on my shelves for almost three and a half years, I was glad for the break.  I also listened to the audio as I read the book and felt that the reader who narrated the book did a really good job.  I like how Flavia was a pretty typical 11-year old, except that she really isn't a typical 11-year old. I love the quirkiness that is Flavia and how she figures things out and I also like how she interacts with the people in her village.  There was something about the book that made me smile as I read the book and also chuckle as I read the book.  Its a really enjoyable book and I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Bottom line: I would probably recommend the book to most readers that like to have a fairly light read on hand.  Its something that one can read in the matter of a few days or less and can delight almost anybody.

Rating: 4/5

Pages for 2012: 21756