It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw young Flavia de Luce an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then hours later Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia who is both appalled and delighted life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
