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    The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, Book 2
    Unavailable
    The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, Book 2
    Unavailable
    The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, Book 2
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, Book 2

    Written by Alan Bradley

    Narrated by Jayne Entwistle

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From Dagger Award-winning and internationally bestselling author Alan Bradley comes this utterly beguiling mystery starring one of fiction's most remarkable sleuths: Flavia de Luce, a dangerously brilliant eleven-year-old with a passion for chemistry and a genius for solving murders. This time, Flavia finds herself untangling two deaths-separated by time but linked by the unlikeliest of threads.

    Flavia thinks that her days of crime-solving in the bucolic English hamlet of Bishop's Lacy are over-and then Rupert Porson has an unfortunate rendezvous with electricity. The beloved puppeteer has had his own strings sizzled, but who'd do such a thing and why? For Flavia, the questions are intriguing enough to make her put aside her chemistry experiments and schemes of vengeance against her insufferable big sisters. Astride Gladys, her trusty bicycle, Flavia sets out from the de Luces' crumbling family mansion in search of Bishop's Lacey's deadliest secrets.

    Does the madwoman who lives in Gibbet Wood know more than she's letting on? What of the vicar's odd ministrations to the catatonic woman in the dovecote? Then there's a German pilot obsessed with the Brontë sisters, a reproachful spinster aunt, and even a box of poisoned chocolates. Most troubling of all is Porson's assistant, the charming but erratic Nialla. All clues point toward a suspicious death years earlier and a case the local constables can't solve-without Flavia's help. But in getting so close to who's secretly pulling the strings of this dance of death, has our precocious heroine finally gotten in way over her head?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMar 9, 2010
    ISBN9780307576422
    Unavailable
    The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag: A Flavia de Luce Mystery, Book 2

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    Reviews for The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Flavia de Luce, sleuth and chemical genius, becomes entangled with a traveling puppeteer and his assistant.Am I allowed to call this a cute book? Probably not. People are murdered. Others are beaten. Still others die under mysterious circumstances, and some of them are children. But for all the mayhem and carnage and bloodshed, this's awful cute.I mean, it's Flavia de Luce! Remember her? Eleven years old, precocious, possessed of vast knowledge regarding the creation and administration of poisons? She made THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE, and she makes this book, too. She's a delightful heroine, and I continue to be impressed with her mix of capability and age-appropriate enthusiasm. She's exactly the sort of fictional kid I like: smart, talented, and still inclined to play around. She rings true.I find it interesting, too, to see where her blind spots are. For all her intelligence, she's still remarkably susceptible to her older sisters' jibes. They constantly badger her about her supposed adopted status and her role in their mother's tragic mountaineering accident, and she buys it. It makes me want to reach into the book and give her a big ol' hug. "Don't worry, Flavia," I'd say. "They're just having you on. You're not adopted, and you didn't drive Harriet to her death." She wouldn't believe me, of course--this whole you-caused-Harriet's-death thing is too close to what she herself fears--but maybe it'd make the both of us feel a little bit better.(And is it just me, or does anyone else suspect that Harriet may not be quite so dead as we've been led to believe? Maybe I'm overly suspicious, but I'm never quite willing to accept a character's alleged death until I've seen a body. Especially not when said alleged death occurs in a mystery novel).So, yes. I enjoyed spending more time with Flavia, and I found the mystery decent, but I'm afraid I didn't get quite as much from this as I did from TSATBOTP. I felt like it took a long time for the mystery to get going, and I was never quite sure what I was supposed to be watching for. Flavia's antics made up for this, to a certain extent, but I would have liked to see a little more intrigue mixed in amongst all the other stuff. I enjoyed the puppetry and the German Bronte-lover and all that, but there are times when I want my mysteries to be more, well, mysterious. I feel strange saying that, since there are some decidedly mysterious goings-on here, and I'm often quite happy to read mysteries in which the sleuthing takes a backseat to character development, but somehow it wasn't quite so satisfying as it could've been.I did enjoy it. I want to make that clear. It's a solid 3.25-star read (which I'm rounding up to 3.5 because I don't do quarter ratings and I don't round down), and in my world that is not a poor rating. I'll certainly be reading the other Flavia de Luce books as they're released, and I recommend that you give 'em a go.(This review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina).
    • 4/5
      I have heard good things about this series from others. I decided to finally give it a chance. Unfortunately my library didn't have the first volume, but they did have the second volume and that is where I started. This feels like a stand alone mystery, so I didn't feel like I was missing anything. Flavia is a likable character. It is hard to remember she is only 11 years old. She is a great detective and chemist and is sure to do good things as she gets older. I think this will be a fun series for me.
    • 3/5
      This one took me a while and seemed a little confusing. I guess that's the point of a good mystery...get us confused so we never see it coming.
    • 2/5
      I'm giving this a 2.5 because although I liked the basic story there were more things that I didn't like:

      I didn't like Flavia's "voice". It is Not true to life for any 11 year old....it is the author's voice and condescending.

      The chemistry was interesting but too detailed for a non-chemist like myself.

      There were Three (3) derogatory comments regarding Native American's that were most unnecessary. I was able to pass off the first as ignorant, but the second & third showed an actively ignorant attitude on the author's part.

      Some of the characters were uneven, especially Nialla and Flavia's Aunt.

      I read this book because I had read the previous one and had hoped that he'd work Flavia's character out to be more believable.....I guess that didn't happen, so I doubt that I'll read the next one.
    • 5/5
      The second installment of the series that had me deep into Flavia's world as she tries to solve yet another crime in her little town. Loved this book. I'm enjoying this series immensely.
    • 3/5
      Not quite as good as the 1st one.
    • 4/5
      Again fun - Flavia will be a character to return to. Alan Bradley does a fine job at entertaining and sometimes that is all I require....
    • 4/5
      Flava is one of my favorite literary characters. She jumps off the page fully formed 11 year old, ready to tell you about poisons and her take on adults. While Sweetness drug on a little for me, Weed was well paced and came to a conclusion faster than I realized. I cannot wait to see if we get to spend more time with Aunt Felicity moving forward.
    • 4/5
      My second Flavia de Luce mystery. Slow until the murder. But, I suspect typically of Bradley, the layers of meaning in every action leading up to the crime are worth teasing out. What is with the deLuce family?? They are cuckoo in the extreme. 2017-02-08
    • 3/5
      I don't think this entry even made sense, but it was still enjoyable. The description of the puppet show was remarkably vivid. I wish there were an accompaniment to this series that discussed the chemistry, I would certainly read it.
    • 4/5
      Second in the Flavia de Luce mystery series featuring an 11-year-old girl as the sleuth. A travelling puppeteer and his glamorous assistant become stranded in Bishop's Lacey when their van breaks down. Not having enough ready cash to get it fixed it's soon decided that they'll put on a show as payment in kind and Flavia is soon tasked with lending a helping hand. A case of soon-to-be motherhood soon comes to light and while a child born out of wedlock was quite shocking for the time it is rapidly trumped by murder. Flavia, of course, decides her help is required to further the police investigation. She also becomes embroiled in a mystery from 5 years previous when a young boy was found hanging in a tree in Gibbet Wood. Was it death by misadventure as the inquest ruled or something more?If this was another old dear investigates type of story then I doubt I'd be too bothered with this series but the use of a precocious young girl as the protagonist has me utterly charmed. Seeing events and people's interactions through Flavia's eyes is an excellent choice to explore life in a small English village of that time. The pace that the story unfolds is perfect and the characters that surround Flavia have enough depth to add to the tale without getting in the way of it. I look forward to learning more of this young detective and watching her grow throughout the rest of the series.
    • 3/5
      f you've been wanting that book 1001 Similes Before You Die, rest assured that after you read the Flavia deLuce series you would have hit every one of them! Like ants at a picnic, the pages are crawling with them. As in the first book, they start to detract from the story and I started skimming them like dragonflies across a pond. Still, it is an entertaining read and I liked the story a bit better than the first.
    • 5/5
      Excellent! Flavia DeLuce is wonderful, witty, and as smart as a whip in this sequel. While the story did not pick up as quickly as the first one, Bradley makes up for that with all the juicy gossip, affairs, and murder among the citizens of Bishop's Lacey. Feely and Daphne are still extremely annoying older sisters and it's just as much fun the second time around to watch Flavia exact her revenge upon them. Her father is still completely consumed by his stamp collection and Dogger is still...Dogger. We do get to meet Flavia's Aunt Felicity, however, and she is a force to be reckoned with. You won't be disappointed as you travel Bishop's Lacey with Flavia and her trusty sidekick Gladys, meeting new and very interesting characters. I can't wait to pick up A Red Herring Without Mustard. How great are the titles in this series!
    • 5/5
      I liked this one as much as the others. I hope Alan Bradley writes many more. I only wish I hadn't read them out of order - I admit to a bit of confusion when Flavia was meeting characters for the first time, and I already knew them. Oops.
    • 3/5
      Another engaging, albeit not as greatly as the previous one, Flavia de Luce murder mystery.

      Flavia discovers what really happened five years ago to a young boy found dead in a hangman's noose, and connects it to the death of an entertainer recently come to town.
    • 3/5
      Flavia de Luce is back; solving a new mystery in this novel, the second book in the series "The Buckshaw Chronicles".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.Flavia is very precocious - smart beyond her years, mature (when she needs to be) and all too aware the world around her is not always a safe place. She excels at chemistry and loves her lab and experiments. I found this book better than the first novel in "The Buckshaw Chronicles" series, Sweetness At the Bottom of the Pie - though both are charming, interesting and not wholly predictable.
    • 3/5
      Take one part Agatha Christie murder mystery, one part Hermione Granger, and one part P. G. Wodehouse screwball comedy, and what do you get? The adventures of 11-year-old sleuth Flavia De Luce. Flavia is an odd little duck, but she can somehow charm her way into nearly every household of Bishop's Lacey, the small English town where she lives, and where a murder seems to take place every so often. Armed with that charm and her knowledge of chemistry, she tackles the mysteries that stymie the local police inspector. This book is Flavia's second outing.

      I found this book likeable, but rather bloodless (as are the two murders she solves this time). In the first book ("The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie"), we sense danger closing in on Flavia as she gets closer to the killer's identity. But in this book, no such danger materializes. There's no climax. Merely an end to information gathering, and a recitation of the solution. Also lacking in this book was a sense of the creepy pleasure Flavia takes in poisonings, stabbings, and dark doings. She's a much nicer kid in this book, and her weirdness has been sanded down quite a bit. My hope for the next book as that Flavia can once again let her freak flag fly, and for more thrills, spills, and chills.
    • 3/5
      I just don't know about Flavia. I liked the mystery, I like the setting, I like the British-ness of it. And I appreciate that even though Flavia is insanely intelligent and analytical Bradley still manages to write her as a petulant 11 year old who has petty fights with her sisters. But I just don't know if I like her or if she occasionally amuses me.
      Narrator did a superb job so if I continue the series it will probably be on audio.
    • 2/5
      The kind of light frothy book that is fun to read, and as soon as you are finished, you forget what it was about.
    • 4/5
      Flavia is the best!!
    • 5/5
      I was a little more impressed by the sequel. Although most of the characters were familiar, different supporting characters were added and new tidbits about some favorite characters wended through the mystery plot (which I didn't figure out at all - I was way off with my solution). I like how the author dealt with Flavia's worry about whether she was wanted or not by her mother.
    • 4/5
      stand-alone book, but I'd reccomend starting with the first book because both are enjoyable and the extra context wouldn't hurt.) Flavia de Luce was great as usual, but the supporting characters were fleshed out and more three-dimensional than in the first book, as well. While I wouldn't call this a thriller, I wouldn't call it bucolic either. I still read the book quickly because I kept wanting "more." The murder mystery part was entertaining, but so were the people of Bishop's Lacey.Characters: Flavia isn't a character that will appeal to everyone. She's an 11 year old chemistry expert and a smarta**. She doesn't respect authority. She exacts revenge on people/can be mean. She can be self-centered. This isn't a book about an adorable kid. She's no Anne Of Green Gables or Ramona Quimby because many of the things she does to get into trouble are calculated instead of being based on a misunderstanding of the adult world. If you enjoy books that don't have angelic heroines or were once that smart alec kid yourself, give Flavia a shot.I think those who complain that her encyclopedic knowledge of poisons is unrealistic and unnecessary are missing the mark entirely: I believe such knowledge is necessary to demonstrate Flavia's intelligence and problem-solving abilities. Moreover, her chemistry know-how plays an integral role in the plot. I think Bradley does an excellent job of straddling the line of fantasy and realism to bring us a character that is colorful without being a characterture. Besides, series require a person to be a little bit willing to play along, otherwise, no matter how believable the characters are, the scenarios will seem absolutely ludicrous when strung together (Miss Marple would be exhausted, Jack Bauer would have horrifically bad luck, Carrie Bradshaw would have far too many boyfriends, etc).
    • 4/5
      I just love this little series of books about an eleven year old mystery solving chemist fighting crime, and her sisters, in a run down english manor house. I'm not a huge reader of 'series' books, generally making it through the first one wanting more, the second one thinking it wasn't as good as the first, and the third one I might only make it halfway though. That said I loved this series so far and will be buying the 3rd installment when it comes out in late Feb. Fingers crossed that it's as good as the first two. (2011)
    • 5/5
      I listened to this audiobook when it first came out. It was very well done and I loved hearing the accent and giving Flavia a voice outside of my head. Very well developed characters. Enjoyable!
    • 5/5
      Set in 1950s England, Flavia de Luce is a precocious and resourceful eleven-year-old with a passion for death and pottering with poisons. In her second adventure, Flavia meets Nialla and Rupert Porson of the popular travelling puppet show while she is playing at being dead in the cemetery. Death truly does strike in Bishop’s Lacey, however, when Porson is electrocuted during the finale of his show. Spurred on by the behest of her curiousity, Flavia races through Bishop’s Lacey on her bicycle, named Gladys, as she pits her cunning against that of the local constabulary. Flavia is a perceptive, yet lonely, heroine. Her father is preoccupied with his stamps and money problems, her sister Daphy with her books and her sister Feely with her reflection in the mirror. Flavia’s mother fell off a mountain in Tibet shortly after Flavia’s birth. Flavia’s sisters like to torment her by frequently voting her out of the family. A fascination with the chemistry of putrefaction and cadaveric decay still leaves plenty of energy for the contemplation of vengeance. Flavia is tenacious on her hunt for the truth, and utilises her talent of the charming third degree and her art for verbal deflection with gusto. She shrewdly extracts information from her oblivious victims along with horehound sticks and scones. Flavia is delightful company. Bradley has a knack for depicting a cast of quirky, engaging characters and a quaint, charming setting. I can still feel the air rushing past me as Gladys’s tires hum their busy, waspish sound, and Flavia’s pigtails fly in the wind. Yes, Flavia’s knowledge sometimes seems far beyond the reach of an eleven-year-old, but there are moments when she is blissfully ignorant of particulars of the adult world. It was pure fun joining Flavia on her exploits. I can hardly wait to peek over her shoulder in Buckshaw’s laboratory again, as Flavia creates another one of her deliciously deadly concoctions in "The Red Herring Without Mustard".
    • 4/5
      I read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie a few years ago and I was immediately captivated by Flavia de Luce. The youngest of three sisters who live in England just after the war, Flavia is intelligent and curious. Her mother is dead and her father spends most of his time with his stamp collection. Her two older sisters, like siblings everywhere, torment Flavia with tales that she is adopted or else they ignore her. So Flavia has lots of time to work in her chemistry laboratory and go biking around the countryside. If she encounters a mystery as she does so all the better.This book starts in the St. Tancred's Church graveyard where Flavia is imagining her funeral. She then hears someone crying and goes to investigate. She discovers Nialla, assistant to Rupert Porson, who operates a travelling puppet show. The van they are travelling in has broken down just outside the church. Thus begins the tale that involves murder, death by mysterious circumstances, a grieving mother, a mad homeless woman, the BBC and, of course, the de Luces. Flavia is one up on the local police inspector all the way but it's all part of her day.I can hardly wait to read the next book in the series, A Red Herring without Mustard.
    • 5/5
      One of his best. Great dynamic going on behind the scenes of this intriguing murder mystery. Nice to find a logical plot among the sea of plotless wonders out there.
    • 4/5
      Child chemist Flavia de Luce is back investigating murder. This time a popular puppeteer is electrocuted during a performance. Flavia is convinced it is not an accident. Her investigations suggest that puppeteer Rupert Porson was not the stranger in the village he claimed to be, and it seems that his death might be linked to that of a child found hanged several years earlier. I enjoyed this Flavia de Luce mystery more than the first. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that there was so much hype about the first one that it couldn't possibly meet expectations. I did find that the family dynamics were more developed in this book, which greatly added to my enjoyment. The addition of Aunt Felicity is a welcome one. There's more to the family in this book than Flavia's sisters trying to convince her that she was adopted. This second book in the series also gave Flavia more depth. I'm most definitely looking forward to the next one.
    • 5/5
      Excellent follow-up to The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Flavia is at it again, this time investigating the murder of a puppeteer.
    • 4/5
      Flavia is at it again - using her youth and uncanny ability to make people think what she wants them to, Flavia solves the crime(s) and helps the adults catch the killer. Along the way there are amusing reflections on poisons and the on-going disdain of her older sisters. As the mother of an 11 year old, I have a hard time imagining a child having the life experience (or knowledge) to "connect the dots" as Flavia seems to. But a little suspension of disbelief is a good thing in this case.