The plot takes place in 1950's era England, in the small town of Bishop Lacey. Flavia is an 11-year-old girl who lives with her emotionally distant, stamp enthusiast father, Colonel de Leuc , two cruel older sisters Ophelia (Feely) and Daphne (Daffy) and her loyal, yet sometimes 'foggy' grounds keeper, Dogger. Flavia's mother, Harriet,died when Flavia was just a baby in a tragic mountain climbing accident. Unlike other girls her age, Flavia loves chemistry and spends a majority of her time in a lab built by one of her ancestors in the family mansion, Buckshaw. Flavia's favorite pastime is recreating poisons used by histories most infamous poisoners.
Flavia's macabre and dry sense of humor makes for an extremely entertaining read. She has the ability to make any seemingly disturbing situation into something that is quite humorous, if not a bit disconserting. Although Flavia is a child, the plot of the book is definitely not for children. In fact, Flavia's narrative makes her sound more of an adult than a majority of the adult characters.
The Red Herring concerns a series of gruesome murders occuring throughout the town. The murders appear be related, but you can never be sure because the plot takes many twists that are intended to be misleading (get it...'red herring'...duh). Flavia becomes intimately involved with each of the murders in town, leaving her with the more knowledge of the deaths than anyone else has. Her ability to outsmart and out think the bumbling adults that surround her, allows me to forget that she is in fact only 11-years-old. We are only reminded of her actual age when she comes face to face with death, and only then are we shown the little girl that she truly is. The plot itself is complicated in nature and I don't want to give anything away, so it's up to you to find out.
My one complaint about this book is that I read it as soon as it was published, so now I have to wait forever for the next installment! Also, on a side note I am all about crazy internet fads, so I started a Tumblr blog (sorry for cheating on you blogger). My Tumblr blog is pretty simple, it's just some of my favorite quotes from the books I've been reading recently. There are some really good ones from The Red Herring Without Mustard, so check it out! thebananalise.tumblr.com
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