For very-nearly-eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the discovery of a dead snipe on
the doorstep of Buckshaw, the crumbling de Luce country seat, was a marvellous
mystery - especially since this particular snipe had a rather rare stamp neatly
impaled on its beak. Even more astonishing was the effect of the dead bird on
her stamp-collector father, who appeared to be genuinely frightened.Soon Flavia
discovers something even more shocking in the cucumber patch and it's clear that
the snipe was a bird of very ill omen indeed. As the police descend on Buckshaw,
Flavia decides it is up to her to piece together the clues and solve