Flavia de Luce is back on the case, her third in this sweet mystery series by Alan Bradley. In A Red Herring Without Mustard, Flavia comes to the rescue when a gypsy is charged with the abduction of a local child. Flavia must draw upon her encyclopedic knowledge of poisons — and gypsy lore — to prevent a grave miscarriage of justice, and to solve a greater and far more personal mystery: What really happened to her long-vanished mother?
A Red Herring Without Mustard will be available wherever books and eBooks are sold on February 8, 2011. But we’ve got a sneak peek for you:
“You frighten me,” the Gypsy said. “Never have I seen my crystal ball so filled with darkness.”
She cupped her hands around the thing, as if to shield my eyes from the horrors that were swimming in its murky depths. As her fingers gripped the glass, I thought I could feel ice water trickling down inside my gullet.
At the edge of the table, a thin candle flickered, its sickly light glancing off the dangling brass hoops of the Gypsy’s earrings, then flying off to die somewhere in the darkened corners of the tent.
Black hair, black eyes, black dress, red- painted cheeks, red mouth, and a voice that could only have come from smoking half a million cigarettes.
As if to confirm my suspicions, the old woman was suddenly gripped by a fit of violent coughing that rattled her crooked frame and left her gasping horribly for air. It sounded as though a large bird had somehow become entangled in her lungs and was flapping to escape.
Click here to continue reading the first chapter of A Red Herring Without Mustard. And if you love Flavia de Luce as much as we do, join the Flavia Fan Club!