I’m in two minds about this installment of the Flavia series. On the one hand, it was fun to revisit the characters. On the other, I didn’t really see the point of the book, other than revisiting old characters (which can, of course, be a good point to a book). There’s always been a mystery at the center of these books, and in this one, the mystery doesn’t even START until halfway through. Even then, hardly any of the book relates to it. It seemed an odd choice for a mystery series.

In general, the Flavia books have been hit or miss for me. I liked the first and third volumes, but really disliked the second and was only so-so about this one.