A Red Herring Without Mustard (Alan Bradley)

Alan Bradley has brought readers his third Flavia de Luce mystery. Flavia, a very brilliant scientist even if she is only eleven years old, seems to have a special ability of finding trouble--as in, finding dead bodies and such.

This time around, Flavia has to find out who attacked a Gypsy fortune teller that she led to a section of her family's property to settle for a little while. Of course, on the heels of that attack, Flavia finds the body of the town bully hanging from the trident of the sculpture of Poseidon in at Buckshaw (the de Luce family home).

Flavia also has to still deal with her two older sisters picking on her--all three of them are prodigies in their own way. Their mother's death continues to play a big part in the family's dynamics, as is to be expected. This book goes a little deeper into Flavia's feelings about growing up without her mother. Economic problems have come to the fore as well.

In this book, Bradley also goes a little deeper into Flavia's feelings of loneliness. She even acknowledges that she may want to make friends. It's great that Bradley has made sure to keep Flavia evolving, even though the action in this book happens relatively close to the action from the previous book. Like most brilliant people, Flavia finds herself alone more often than not. Maybe Bradley will give her a sidekick other than her trusty bike, Gladys?

Next up: Murder in Passy, by Cara Black