Publisher's Synopsis
For very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on the doorstep of Buckshaw, the de Luce country seat, was a marvellous mystery, especially since it had a rather rare stamp impaled on its beak. However, her father, Colonel de Luce, usually untroubled by emotion of any kind, seems genuinely frightened. When Flavia finds something even more shocking in the cucumber patch, the police descend on Buckshaw and her father retreats into grim-faced silence. It is up to Flavia to piece together the clues - including the disappearance of a slice of Mrs Mullet's unspeakable custard pie.
