Flavia de Luce Mystery Series 5 Book Set by Alan Bradley

This five-book collection brings together the opening novels in Alan Bradley’s Flavia de Luce Mystery Series. Set in England in 1950, it follows Flavia de Luce, an inquisitive girl on the verge of turning eleven, as disturbing incidents ripple through Buckshaw and the surrounding area.

Across the set, Flavia finds herself drawn into a sequence of investigations, from a body discovered in the garden to a murder connected to an earlier tragedy. As circumstances shift for the de Luce family, new arrivals and unexpected revelations continue to pull her deeper into mysteries that challenge her powers of deduction.

Included titles

• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
• The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag
• A Red Herring Without Mustard
• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows
• Speaking from Among the Bones

Key details

• Five-book set
• Opening titles in the Flavia de Luce Mystery Series
• By Alan Bradley
• Set in England in 1950

Synopses

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

At Buckshaw, the crumbling country seat of the de Luce family, Flavia sets out to take revenge on her older sisters. After a dead bird is left on the doorstep and has an extraordinary effect on her eccentric father, a body is soon discovered in the garden.

The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

A travelling puppet show arrives in the village of Bishop’s Lacey, followed by a shocking murder. Flavia’s precocious deductions are pushed to the limit as she realises the crime echoes an earlier tragedy.

A Red Herring Without Mustard

A visit to a Gypsy fortune-teller begins as harmless entertainment until the old woman claims to see a vision of Flavia’s mother, who died when Flavia was a baby. When the fortune-teller is brutally attacked, Flavia questions whether her presence has stirred memories within the village.

I Am Half-Sick of Shadows

With Christmas approaching and snow falling, the de Luce family finances are in a parlous state. Colonel de Luce is forced to rent out the family home to a film company, and for Flavia and her sisters it feels as though their belated Christmases have arrived all at once.

Speaking from Among the Bones

When the tomb of St Tancred is opened, the body of the organist is found in a pool of blood, his features covered by a gas mask. Flavia is intrigued by the brutal and bizarre killing, and wonders why anyone would want to murder the much-admired organist.