“The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag” by Alan Bradley – Pulling Death’s Strings

It seems to me that these days mystery novels can be generally divided into two categories: the ones which strive to bring back the charm of the older classics, and the ones trying to take things in new directions.

Each category certainly has its own merits, and The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag by Alan Bradley fall into the former of the two, in my opinion of course.

In it, we follow our well-known heroine, Flavia de Luce, eleven year-old chemist prodigy and murder detective extraordinaire. Just as things seemed to be settling down around her, the grim reaper swung his scythe again and took the life of Ruper Porson, a local puppeteer.

Though it seemed like he was electrocuted by accident, Flavia cannot help but feel something is amiss, and so begins a new journey into the world of murder investigations, as any eleven year-old would.

As the clues begin to pile up it becomes apparent that the case is related to an unresolved death years ago, and that someone unknown is pulling the strings from up above. For the first time, Flavia de Luce may be in over her head.

This being the second book in the series, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Bradley chose to place a greater focus on the development and solving of the mystery itself rather than characterization. Don’t get me wrong; there is certainly enough character development to keep things interesting, especially when it comes to our beloved protagonist.

The bulk of the writing however is devoted to the process of solving the mystery, how Flavia uses her powers of observation and deduction to find clues, connect them, and direct herself towards the mystery’s solution. Though she may be eleven years old, don’t let that fact fool you; she is certainly a capable detective not far behind the all-time greatest minds of the genre.

As far as the mystery itself goes, just like last time, it is rather well-constructed with no visible plot-holes. The clues are rather straightforward in the sense that one leads to another, and in the end all the small parts form the bigger picture where everything is neatly explained.

Though it is a joy to watch Flavia solve the mystery, I believe that it is made even better by the fact that Bradley used his descriptions wisely, fleshing out the world and the characters as well as their relationships with each other, taking things a step further than in the previous novels. This, in my opinion, raised the novel’s level of immersion and even mode some of the characters more relatable.

On the whole, the first novel in the series was already very good, and I believe the second one to be an further improvement on it.

If you are looking for a classic-style mystery that will allow you to get lost in a nearly-fantastical time which feels almost unreal at this point (at least to some), The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag is an easy choice to make.

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Alan Bradley Personal site Alan Bradley is a Canadian author whose body of work mostly revolves around the mystery genre, being best-known for penning the Flavia de Luce series, which begins with the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. On July 5th, 2007, Bradley was awarded the Dagger award in London.