Flavia de Luce #9, following THRICE THE BRANDED CAT. 12-year-old Flavia de Luce goes on a boating trip with her two older sisters. As their punt drifts past the church where a notorious vicar had recently dispatched three of his female parishioners by spiking their communion wine with cyanide, Flavia, is ecstatic. Suddenly something grazes against her fingers as she dangles them in the water. She clamps down on the object, expecting to pull up a giant fish. But in Flavia's grip is something far better: a human head, attached to a human body.