A Red Herring Without Mustard

A Red Herring Without Mustard (2011) Alan Bradley

This is the third Flavia de Luce book, and the de Luce family still hovers on the edge of ruin. I’ll actually be curious to see how long into the series this particular sword hangs over their heads.

But that is not the start–or even the main part–of the story. The story begins with a fortune teller, looking a Flavia’s fortune, and seeing perhaps also he past. Her pronouncements freak out Flavia who then, accidentally burns down the woman’s tent. Looking to make amends, Flavia tries to do what she can, only to discover that this old woman was familiar with her mother–Harriet who disappeared when Flavia was a year old.

There end up being multiple crimes, and it was the old crime that seemed so out of place to me. Well, not the crime itself (that seemed somewhat obvious to this veteran reader of mysteries) but instead why Flavia became interested in Hobblers. (I think the Hobblers were not a real religion, but were based on the Dunkers. But I did only a cursory search of both the Internet and my memory.) I mean, the Hobblers were interesting to me, but I remain fascinated by comparative theology. It doesn’t really seem like Flavia’s thing, and I don’t quite see what turned her onto them.

This wasn’t a game breaker, it was just a bit off.

Through this story, Flavia remains obsessed with chemistry, her father with stamps, and her two sisters continue to torment her, although we see glimpses that they–despite everything Flavia does–still love her.

I slipped stealthily into the picture gallery, which occupied nearly the entire ground floor of the east wing.

An army of de Luce ancestors gazed down upon me as I passed, in whose faces I recognized , uncomfortably, aspects of my own. I wouldn’t have liked most of them, I thought, and most of them wouldn’t have liked me.

I did a cartwheel just to show them that I didn’t care.

There were also views of Post WWII England that seemed likely, even if they weren’t necessarily real.

The third film, The Maintenance of Aero Engines: Part III, must have been something left over from the war— a film that was being shown simply because it happened to be in the same box as the others.

That seems so very much like something that would happen, it just tickled my fancy. As did Flavia’s thoughts on prayer.

Thinking and prayer are much the same thing anyway, when you stop to think about it— if that makes any sense. Prayer goes up and thought comes down— or so it seems. As far as I can tell, that’s the only difference.

Although I still don’t see why Flavia became interested in the Hobblers, it was still an interesting story, and enjoyable.
Rating: 7/10

Published by Delacorte Press

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