399 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 2011 by Delacorte Press.
My wife and I 'read' this together as an audio book, in the comfort of our family room. The audio reader (reading) was adequate, not great. The story was about the same. Overall this was, however, a very relaxing enjoyment, to simply sit and be read to...
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 …
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.
So disappointing! I was hoping this series would turn into my new guilty-pleasure reading, but after such a great first book and a so-so second book, this one is just terrible. The plot is ridiculous, Flavia is no longer interesting, and all the descriptive passages fail to set the stage, lead to clues, or provide any real benefit. Sigh.
This one took a bit of time to get going with the story plot but as usual I ended up enjoying the escapades of the precocious 11 year old Flavia DeLuce. I listed to this one on audio book and the reader does a delightful job of relating the tale. I highly recommend it to readers who like a little bit of a different twist on their mysteries.
Great fun, blew through it in a lazy afternoon. Recommended.
