I have recently re-started (and am now almost done with) the book A Red Herring Without Mustard. I am in love with the Flavia de Luce series. Flavia is an 11 year old chemist who lives with her slightly strange and unconventional father and her 2 older sisters, both of which seem to despise her for no apparent reason. Flavia is extremely intelligent and often ends up being mixed up in murders. In A Red Herring Without Mustard Flavia gives shelter to a gypsy, then the next morning heads out into the fields where the gypsy set up her tent, and finds the woman brutally wounded and on the edge of death. The same day, Flavia is walking around in Buckshaw's (that's the name of the place she lives) garden and she finds a dead man hanging off of a statue of Neptune. It's all very scary.

In my opinion, the character of Flavia de Luce is not realistic. Although it is possible for a child to be as bright as she is she is not at all scared by death and is infatuated by crime, neither of which is a trait I have often seen in an 11 year old girl. But still, over all, this series is great and you should read them!