Alan Bradley's debut is a diverting, entertaining and amusing one. Flavia is a remarkable 11-year-old girl, she's fascinated by chemistry and has her own laboratory where she mixes different kinds of poison. She's smart, nosey and prococious, her character is simply adorable. The book brims over with odd characters and black humor (especially when Flavia and her two sisters "fighting" each other). It was so much fun to unravel the mystery of the dead body in the cucumber seed with Flavia together, although some sequences are excessively written. Fortunately, the next installment of this series will be released soon with the title "The Weed that strings the Hangman's bag" and I'm so looking forward to meet Flavia again!!