A Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

You know, at the rate that Flavia finds corpses, I'm surprised that no one ever suspects her of having something to do with it. Even Kogoro Mouri, the front for detective Conan gets accused of bringing death with him. Then again, Detective Conan has been running for 890 chapters (at last count), not to mention the anime series and the movies that's been produced. And I'm only at book 3 of the Flavia de Luce series, so I guess she still gets a little leeway.

In this book, we not only have the murder of what seems to be an extremely troublesome delinquent, there's a serious assault case that has an old gypsy lady in the hospital. Incidentally, the gypsy lady appears in the first chapter, when she scares Flavia while giving her her fortune (unsurprisingly, Feely and Daffy have something to do with it). And Flavia being Flavia, she ends up forming a friendship with the Porcelain, the niece of the gypsy woman.

But of course, this case isn't so straightforward as to just be about a murder and assault. There's also a secret sect called the Wobblers involved, and a missing baby.

Personally, I felt that the many strands in this book were tied together very well. Unlike the second book, where the mystery was meh to me, the case in this book was interesting and a key focus of the book. Not only do we get to find out more about Flavia and her family (which could hold enough secrets for either a TV soap or a sitcom), but there's an interesting case mixed up in it too!

If you like Flavia de Luce, you'll love this third book.