Red Herring Without Mustard by Alan Bradley

I love Flavia de Luce, the 11-year old heroine of this third book in the series set in the late 1950's in England, written by Alan Bradley. She is a precocious murder mystery solver who is invnetive, smart, shows a lot of common sense, and has a preternatural knowledge of chemistry. The more I read about her, the more I like her. She also has a good head on her shoulders and a firm moral compass that guides her through some things that her father wouldn't approve of her doing. In this installment, she uncovers a little bit more about her mother, who died when she was too young to really know her, and Flavia starts to get a sense that she might be a bit like her, which makes her more attached to her and more sad that she missed knowing her. The estate she lives on is the one her mother grew up on, so the discoveries are likely to keep appearing in upcoming books. I liked this one very much. The plot is completely unrealistic, but that doesn't detract from the telling of the story. The whole series would work for both young adults and fully matured reading audiences.