“Sophisticated, series-launching … It’s a rare pleasure to follow Flavia as she investigates her limited but boundless-feeling world.”
THE MOST AWARD-WINNING BOOK
OF ANY YEAR!
BOTTOM
THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE FLAVIA DE LUCE SERIES
BY ALAN BRADLEY
WINNER:
Macavity Award for Best First Mystery Novel
Barry Award for Best First Novel
Agatha Award for Best First Novel
Dilys Winn Award
Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel
Spotted Owl Award for Best Novel
CWA Debut Dagger Award
“If ever there was a sleuth who’s bold, brilliant, and, yes, adorable, it’s Flavia de Luce.”
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag
“Endlessly entertaining … The author deftly evokes the period, but Flavia’s sparkling narration is the mystery’s chief delight.”
“Brisk, funny and irrepressible, Flavia is distinctly uncute, and the cozy village setting has enough edges to keep suspicions sharp.”
“Bradley takes everything you expect and subverts it, delivering a smart, irreverent, unsappy mystery.”
“Like its heroine, the novel is spiky, surprising fun.”
“Bradley has once again created an engaging, whimsical, twisting tale that rewards readers as much with its style and background as it does with the central investigation.… Compellingly larger than life.”
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
“Alan Bradley’s marvelous book
—LOUISE PENNY, bestselling author of
“A wickedly clever story, a dead-true and original voice, and an English country house in the summer: Alexander McCall Smith meets Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Please, please, Mr. Bradley, tell me we’ll be seeing Flavia again soon?”
—LAURIE R. KING, bestselling author of
“Utterly charming! Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce proves to be one of the most precocious, resourceful, and, well, just plain dangerous heroines around. Evildoers—and big sisters—beware!”
—LISA GARDNER, bestselling author of
“Impressive as a sleuth and enchanting as a mad scientist, Flavia is most endearing as a little girl who has learned to amuse herself in a big lonely house.”
—MARILYN STASIO,
“Only those who dislike precocious young heroines with extraordinary vocabulary and audacious courage can fail to like this amazingly entertaining book. Expect more from the talented Bradley.”
“A delightful new sleuth. A combination of Eloise and Sherlock Holmes … fearless, cheeky, wildly precocious.”
“An elegant mystery.”
BY ALAN BRADLEY
Copyright © 2011 by Alan Bradley
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DELACORTE PRESS is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Map by Simon Sullivan
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bradley, C. Alan
A red herring without mustard : a Flavia de Luce novel / Alan Bradley.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33986-1
1. Girls—England—Fiction. 2. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.4.B7324R43 2011
813′.6–dc22
2010042029
www.bantamdell.com
Jacket design: Joe Montgomery
v3.1
For John and Janet Harland
… a cup of ale without a wench, why, alas, ’tis like an egg without salt or a red herring without mustard.
THOMAS LODGE AND ROBERT GREENE
Contents
