Chemistry And Cucumber Sandwiches And A Bicycle Named Gladys...

The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag was delightful...and as previously stated...even better than the first book in this series.  I cannot tell you too much about it...the plot is involved and tricky and the cast of characters is quirky and diverse.  There is a master puppeteer, his beautiful yet flawed assistant, a mysterious death from the past, a driven country lady who is overwrought with grief and self loathing, and  an entire cast of English country characters including a reverend and his no nonsense wife, various shop owners who all have secrets to divulge and even a mad woman who lives in the woods.  Flavia is  precocious and smart and an incredible genius when it comes to chemistry and using her head to figure things out.  I even loved her relationships with her father and her sisters and her Aunt Felicity in this book.  They are so much more personable this time around.  Daffy and Feely are a bit more human and perhaps even a bit less horrible to Flavia  and  more likeable in an odd sort of way.  Flavia is so right on in her deductions concerning "the murder" and that is all that I will say about "the murder"...that she even amazes the very uptight and upstanding Inspector Hewitt.  This is just a totally wonderful book and I am so happy to say that Mr. Bradley is hard at work on book number three!!!   Thank goodness!!!