Synopsis
The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
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. Inbetween, 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.
Reviews
'Readers ready to allow themselves to be led by Flavia's strong, cool intelligence and sharp wit and Bradley's deft evocation of a past that never quite existed, will certainly welcome the reappearance of this most original heroine'
Yvonne Klein REVIEWING THE EVIDENCE
.COM 'In this mystery, subtle humor abounds - the kind that kids who know they're really smarter than adults thrive on. It's Harry Potter territory without wizards and with more erudite writing... If Bradley's characters don't make it on the big screen, someone out there is reading the wrong stuff
Sue Emmons MYSTERY SCENE
'Precocious amateur sleuth and chemist Flavia de Luce returns in this charming and captivating sequel...This is a fresh and kooky crime novel that will leave you wanting more WATERSTONES BOOKS QUARTERLY '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. 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'
TANGLED WEB
'This is a rich fruitcake of a book, chock-full of choice morsels, drenched in heartening spirit!...All will be revealed, of course, as the intricate plot unfolds, but there is such period charm to this book, and the precocious Flavia is so original a character, that on all fronts it's a joy to read from start to finish!'
CORNFLOWER
'I didn't work out the ending until it happened ...and so Bradley and Flavia outwitted me which I enjoyed. I do like feeling very clever and having figured it all out myself but there are more twists and turns and with an addition of an old mystery thrown in you have lots more to contend with...I think this series is just going to keep on getting better and better. Its books like this that make reading such a pleasure'
SAVIDGE READS
'Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old sleuth, who first captured readers'
hearts in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
,, unravels a complex plot. There are some chilling moments in this ingenious novel
CHOICE
'memorably funny'
HISTORICAL NOVELS REVIEW
'this is a rich fruitcake of a book, chock-full of choice morsels, drenched in heartening spirit!...The intricate plot unfolds neatly against a charming period backdrop of 1950s'
England, while the precocious but indomitable Flavia is so original a character that the book is a joy to read
GOOD BOOK GUIDE
About the Author
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Alan Bradley was our Guest Editor in March 2012 - click here - to see the books that inspired his writing.
Alan Bradley was born in Toronto and grew up in Cobourg, Ontario. With an education in electronic engineering, Alan worked at numerous radio and television stations in Ontario, and at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (now Ryerson University) in Toronto, before becoming Director of Television Engineering in the media centre at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, SK, where he remained for 25 years before taking early retirement to write in 1994.
He became the first President of the Saskatoon Writers, and a founding member of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild. His children’s stories were published in The Canadian Children’s Annual, and his short story, Meet Miss Mullen, was the first recipient of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Award for Children’s Literature.
For a number of years, he regularly taught Script Writing and Television Production courses at the University of Saskatchewan (Extension Division) at both beginner and advanced levels.
His fiction has been published in literary journals and he has given many public readings in schools and galleries. His short stories have been broadcast by CBC Radio.
He was a founding member of The Casebook of Saskatoon, a society devoted to the study of Sherlock Holmes and Sherlockian writings. Here, he met the late Dr. William A.S. Sarjeant, with whom he collaborated on their classic book, Ms Holmes of Baker Street. This work put forth the startling theory that the Great Detective was a woman, and was greeted upon publication with what has been described as “a firestorm of controversy”.
The release of Ms. Holmes resulted in national media coverage, with the authors embarking upon an extensive series of interviews, radio and television appearances, and a public debate at Toronto’s Harbourfront. His lifestyle and humorous pieces have appeared in The Globe and Mail and The National Post.
His book The Shoebox Bible (McClelland and Stewart, 2006) has been compared with Tuesdays With Morrie and Mr. God, This is Anna. In July of 2007 he won the Debut Dagger Award of the (British) Crimewriter’s Association for his novel The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first of a series featuring eleven year old Flavia de Luce.
Alan Bradley lives in Malta, with his wife Shirley and two calculating cats.
Author photo © Shirley Bradley
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Crime / Who-dunit
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