By Alan Bradley

In the wake of an unthinkable family tragedy, twelve-year-old Flavia de Luce is struggling to fill her empty days.  For a needed escape, Dogger the loyal family servant suggests a boating trip for Flavia and her two older sisters.  As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, an expert chemist with a passion for poisons, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes her fingers as she dangles them in the water.  She clamps down on the object and pulls up what she expects will be a giant fish.  If anything could take Flavia’s mind off sorrow, it is solving a murder, although this one may lead the young sleuth to an early grave.