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A Red Herring Without Mustard

A Flavia de Luce Mystery
by Alan Bradley
A Red Herring Without Mustard: A Flavia de Luce Mystery. Delacorte. Feb. 2011. c.416p. ISBN 9780385342322. $23. M
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The 11-year-old sleuth with a penchant for chemistry and a knack for discovering corpses triumphantly returns in this third installment of Bradley's award-winning mystery series (The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie; The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag), once again finding herself in the middle of a murder investigation. The novel opens with the quintessential church fete in the English village of Bishop's Lacey. An old, cantankerous gypsy reads Flavia's palm, and her prognostications prove lethal. When local layabout and all-around shifty character Brookie Harewood is found murdered, what's a child prodigy to do? Flavia's deceased mother, Harriet, plays a part in this tale, as does the unsolved disappearance of a village baby who went missing years ago.
VERDICT Whether battling with her odious sisters or verbally sparing with the long-suffering Inspector Hewitt, our cheeky heroine is a delight. Full of pithy dialog and colorful characters, this series would appeal strongly to fans of Dorothy Sayers, Gladys Mitchell, and Leo Bruce as well as readers who like clever humor mixed in with their mysteries. [Library marketing; see Prepub Alert, LJ 9/1/10.]
Reviewed by Amy Nolan, St. Joseph P.L., MI , Jan 01, 2011
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