... starting with The Weed That Strings The Hangman's Bag, the second book by Alan Bradley in the Flavia de Luce Mystery series. You may recall I quite enjoyed the sparkling debut in this series, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, but this one falls into the sophomore slump category.
I was surprised I enjoyed Flavia as much as I did in the first book as precocious 11-year old girls are not exactly my cup of tea, but while still quite charming in this adventure I have to admit it did start wearing thin (along with an increased focus on her chemistry skills). But more of an issue than the well-developed Flavia, was a "mystery" that was not anywhere near engaging or well-paced as the first book. I put mystery in quotes as, much like the Alexander McCall Smith No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, while their is something to be "solved," it tends to be on the tad convoluted side with the "why" being more important than the "who" or "what."
As you can tell by the titles of these books, there is a lot of creativity put into these books and having sounded much harsher about this book that I intended, there were really many quite enjoyable aspects in this book. So I do not know if this one will just an anomaly for me or perhaps it was just the wrong book at the wrong time, but back to the harshness I do feel it will take some convincing for me to continue on with this series. I have read plenty of book series where things grow a little tired/stale after awhile, but seems ominous to hit a speed bump in just the second installment. Again, not a disaster... but 2.5 out of 5 stars.
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