Flavia is still her delightful self, her relations with the police and with the vicar are warm and often humorous. She has a gift for making delightful chuckly remarks amid even grim situations. In this book there are too, tender and moving moments, especially between Flavia and her usually critical sister. She and her father have a loving conversation over the kitchen table which she treasures as something special coming as it does from her usually distant father. There is no doubt about her yen for chemistry and poisons but some of her explanations are more detailed than most readers would like to know.
Although written in a spirit of fun, some of her remarks about religion are quite irreverent and certainly show little knowledge of Catholic doctrine on the part of the author.
R.C. (2013)