While contemplating her own funeral Flavia de Luce discovers a woman crying behind a headstone. Nialla, is the assistant to the famed puppeteer Rupert Porson whose traveling vehicle has just gone out on them. They are given assistance and accommodations during their stay and in return will put on a show for the village of Bishop's Lacey. Unfortunately, their performance of Jack and the Beanstalk goes horribly wrong with the puppeteer coming to his demise rather than the giant. Flavia's fascination with death and refusal to follow the rules, enlists herself into the investigation and begins linking up this current murder to that of a small boy who was found hanging in the woods some years earlier.

Flavia is such a precocious child that you can't help but love her and route her on from the sidelines. One thing that I found very interesting about The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag is that a times it didn't even feel like a mystery, the back story of the novel's characters is so intriguing that at times I forgot there was another murder that needed solving. Although, unlike the first in this series, Flavia didn't use her chemistry skills as much to put together clues as in her previous case, but instead focused on poisoning her oldest sister Ophelia with chocolates sent by an admirer. In the end all the pieces of the puzzle are put together and the strings neatly tied, equaling a fun and clever story.