A RED HERRING WITHOUT MUSTARD By: Alan Bradley

     Hooray! Flavia de Luce is back in her third adventure — with Gypsies! Now Flavia seems much older and far more sophisticated and instinctive than her 11 years, and this reader constantly wonders why she doesn’t get along better with her middle sister, since their tastes seem so similar, but none of that distracts from the delightful reading and the scattered scientific facts that pepper Bradley’s wonderful series. You don’t want to know too much about the plot, only that the family is still striving to hang onto the family mansion and grounds in this third book, and the three sisters are still inventing creative ways to torture each other.

     This book seemed, to this reader, to have more twists, turns, and dark passages than the first two in the series. Plus, there were inventive ways that corpses were left to be found, a visit from Gypsies, warehouses full of lovely old antiques, and a completely new look at Flavia’s long-gone mother, Harriet. If this is the first you’ve heard of the series, do go back and start with the first, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE. From there, enjoy the journey.