Flavour Flavia

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag
Alan Bradley
Anchor Canada

The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag is actually the second novel that I've read in the Flavia de Luce mystery series.  What a joy this character is!  Almost eleven, Flavia has already developed what my mother would characterize as a "unique" personality.  Tortured by her older siblings (Daphne and Ophelia, aka Daffy and Feely), Flavia takes great pleasure in plotting their demise.   She's well versed in the art of poisons and when she's not engaged in distilling and concocting, Flavia can usually be found  flying about the English countryside with her best friend Gladys -- a shiny two-wheeler that was a hand-me-down from her deceased mother.  Did I mention that Flavia also likes to solve murders in her spare time?  As I said, she's quite a character.

There are so many great things to recommend this series that I hardly know where to start.  The characters that inhabit these novels are all fantastically drawn and offer almost as much as Flavia herself.  The mysteries are challenging and unlike other detective fiction I've been reading lately,  I've been unable to guess the Whodunit half through the book.  And finally, the writing itself is beautiful.  If words on a page can manage to transport me to another time and another place in such a way that I want to stay in that new world, then I think the author has succeeded in drawing me in.  I have tried to savour these novels because I like Flavia's world and I just don't want them to end. Four dastardly plots out of five.

Only the Shadow Knows ...

The Book of Air and Shadows

Michael Gruber

Harper Collins

A couple of weeks ago I was having a discussion with a work colleague about what makes a good read.   He and I have similar tastes in "Capital L " Literature and I totally trust his recommendations.  It also got me to thinking.  Maybe I've been watching too many Criminal Minds episodes lately, but I get the feeling that if one were to understand my preferences in books, one would be a few short steps from understanding my most inner self.   Scary thought that. 

So why the babble, you ask?  Well, on paper, The Book of Air and Shadows seems like something that I would normally inhale. I mean, it's got all the right pieces:

• It's highly intertextual (you know now I dig books about books)
• The narrative comprises multiple points of view.  It's not just one guy telling a story.
• The timeline shifts between 17th century England and 21st century New York without any crazy time travelling devices or dream sequences.
• It has gangsters and cryptology.  Really, what more could a girl want? 

Well, maybe just a little more.  Jake Mishkin, an IP lawyer based in New York, finds himself in temporary custody of a manuscript fragment that refers to a work by William Shakespeare that has never before been seen.  Aspiring film maker Albert Crosetti is in possession of an encrypted portion of that same manuscript which reveals the location of the new play.  The two eventually connect and mayhem ensues.  While this novel was just a little too smart in places for its own good, it would make a decent airplane read.  Three cramped secretary hands out of five.