In the third installment of this bestselling, award-winning, sister-poisoning, bicycle-riding, murder-investigating, and utterly captivating series, Flavia de Luce must draw upon Gypsy lore and her encyclopaedic knowledge of poisons to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice.
You frighten me, the old Gypsy woman says. Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness. So begins eleven-year-old Flavia de Luces third adventure through the charming but deceptively dark byways of the village of Bishops Lacey. The fortune teller also claims to see a woman who is lost and needs help to get homeand Flavia knows it must be her mother Harriet, who died when Flavia was less than a year old. The Gypsys vision opens up old wounds for our precocious yet haunted heroine, and sets her mind racing in search of what it could mean.
When Flavia later goes to visit the Gypsy at her encampment, she certainly doesnt expect to find the poor old woman lying near death in her caravan, bludgeoned in the wee hours. Was it an act of retribution by those who thought that the woman had abducted a local child years before? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how can she prove this crime is connected to the missing baby? Did it have something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites?
While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon a corpsethat of a notorious layabout and bully she had only recently caught prowling about Buckshaw. The body hangs from a statue of Poseidon in Flavias very own backyard, and our unflappable sleuth knows its up to her to figure out the significance. Pedalling her faithful bicycle, Gladys, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers secrets both long-buried and freshly stowedthe dodgy dealings of a local ironworks, the truth behind the Hobblers secret meetings, her own ancestors ambitious plansall the while exhausting the patience of Inspector Hewitt. But its not long before the evidence starts falling into place, and Flavia must take drastic action to prevent another violent attack.
From the Hardcover edition.
