Many people believe that with age comes wisdom, but that is not always the case. In the
Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag written by Alan Bradley, Flavia is a genius eleven-year-old who has a love for chemistry and solves two murders that could correlate. Flavia lives in
Buckshaw Hall with her father Haviland and siblings Ophelia and Daphne. The story takes place during the 1950s in Bishop Lacey’s, an English Town. The story begins with Flavia narrating about her life while people are carrying her to her burial place. When a jackdaw which looks like an angel descends from Heaven and lands on the coffin of Flavia, she leaps up and hears Nialla, the assistant of the puppeteer Rupert Porson crying on the ground and rushes to her aid. In…show more content… Flavia hears Rupert and Gordon arguing and threatening one another. She waits until they leave the forest near Culverhouse Farm and picks up their cigarettes and tests them: “Friday 21st of July 1950, 9:50 pm. Duquenois- Levine test of leaves and cigarette remnants from Gibbet Wood indicates presence of Indian Hemp (Cannabis sativa). Gordon Ingleby growing and smoking - the stuff…Whatever is going on at Culverhouse Farm, Rupert Porson is part of it” (Bradley,104). Flavia is smart enough to connect that Rupert is smoking what grows in the garden of Gordon. In the book, it states that Rupert tries to hide the smell of smoke on him but the odor lingers ;which means he is a veteran smoker. Also, if Gordon supplies Rupert Cannabis, he has to get along with Rupert in order to get keep him as a customer which increases his profit. Their fight suggests that there is history between the two like an old friendship. In addition, Flavia saves Mrs.Grace Ingleby from dying of a suicide attempt, with chemistry. After Flavia finds out Grace takes rat poison to kill herself because of guilt from her affair with Rupert, that causes Robin to die, Flavia makes an antidote: “ PIGEON DROPPINGS ?” Inspector Hewitt said for perhaps the third time. “You're telling me that you concocted an antidote from pigeon…show more content… First, Flavia finds an incriminating clue at the scene of the death of Rupert Porson before the investigators. When Flavia trespasses the police tape to have gander at the scene, she takes notes and the Inspector and Sergeant catch her and orders her to leave the crime scene: “Then,” I said, reaching up and almost touching the thing. “ Perhaps we should tell the vicar we’ve lost his bicycle clip”(Bradley, 181). The Inspector and the Sergeant find no clues within a couple of days, while Flavia finds a clue in the few minutes she is at the scene. This proves that Flavia is keen by finding hidden clues, while the Inspector and Sergeant in their field of work are not able to find any clues that could further their investigation. Also, Flavia noticing that the clip belongs to the vicar, could mean that he is guilty or an accomplice in regards to the death of Rupert Porson. Furthermore, after Flavia founds out Nialla is pregnant by testing her tears, she also realizes that Nialla is not wet because of rain but urine. Flavia thinks about Nialla and her situation and remembers on the day of them meeting at St. Tancred’s churchyard, that the ground near Nialla is damp but the fall of rain is absent. Flavia concludes that: “She must have been desperate, I decided. Yes! That is it! There wasn’t a woman on earth who would choose such an unwelcoming spot unless she had no other choice. The