The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Novel

by Alan Bradley (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  2011

  $18.44

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.47

  The story opens with the immortal words 'I was lying dead in the churchyard' (spoken, astonishingly, by Flavia herself), and ends with a funeral watched by the De Luce family on a newly installed television set. In between, Alan Bradley weaves a hauntingly nightmarish tale that involves Punch & Judy - and in particular Mr Punch's nemesis, the hangman, Jack Ketch - a frighteningly realistic puppet show, and a hitherto unexplored corner of Bishop's Lacey known as Gibbet's Wood.

  The plot, beginning with the arrival in Bishop's Lacey of a travelling puppet show, features a grisly murder during a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall and reaches back to an earlier, even nastier crime centring on an ancient, rotting gibbet that has lain like a shadow over the village for years. For Flavia, undoing the complex knot that ties these strands together will test her precocious powers of deduction to the limit - and provide a shocking insight into some of the darker corners of the adult world.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2010

  $4.63

  The story opens with the immortal words 'I was lying dead in the churchyard' (spoken, astonishingly, by Flavia herself), and ends with a funeral watched by the De Luce family on a newly installed television set. In between, Alan Bradley weaves a hauntingly nightmarish tale that involves Punch & Judy - and in particular Mr Punch's nemesis, the hangman, Jack Ketch - a frighteningly realistic puppet show and a hitherto unexplored corner of Bishop's Lacey known as Gibbet's Wood. The plot, beginning with the arrival in Bishop's Lacey of a travelling puppet show, features a grisly murder during a performance of Jack and the Beanstalk in the village hall and reaches back to an earlier, even nastier crime centring on an ancient, rotting gibbet that has lain like a shadow over the village for years. For Flavia, undoing the complex knot that ties these strands together will test her precocious powers of deduction to the limit - and provide a shocking insight into some of the darker corners of the adult world.

• New

  Paperback
  2011

  $12.02

  Pigtails, poisons and murder-most-foul

  A travelling puppet show arrives in the sleepy village of Bishop's Lacey - and a shocking murder takes place. For eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the crime will test her precocious powers of deduction to the limit - particularly when she discovers that the murder echoes a tragedy which occurred many years before...

  Praise for the historical Flavia de Luce mysteries:
  'The Flavia de Luce novels are now a cult favourite' Mail on Sunday

  'A cross between Dodie Smith's I Capture The Castle and the Addams family...delightfully entertaining' Guardian

  Fans of M. C. Beaton's Agatha Raisin, Frances Brody and Alexander McCall Smith will enjoy the Flavia de Luce mysteries:
  1. Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
  2. The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
  3. A Red Herring Without Mustard
  4. I Am Half Sick of Shadows
  5. Speaking From Among the Bones
  6. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
  7. As Chimney Sweepers Come To Dust
  8. Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
  9. The Grave's a Fine and Private Place

  If you're looking for a cosy crime series to keep you hooked then look no further than the Flavia de Luce mysteries.

  * Each Flavia de Luce mystery can be read as a standalone or in series order *