The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Today's post is on The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It is the first in his Flavia de Luce series. It is 474 pages long and it is published by Delacorte Press. The cover is green with a bird and a stamp on it. The intended reader is someone who likes mysteries, historical novels, and very clever heroines. There is very mild foul language, no sex, and mild violence in book. The story is told from first person of the main character. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the back of the book- An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions—and a rich literary delight.
In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950—and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”
To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story—of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school’s tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder—but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse…

Review- A delightful read with a very interesting main character. Flavia is very clever young woman with a very mean streak to those who cross her. She torments her older sisters, who in turn torment her. She avoids anything that does not have to do with her beloved chemistry and she discovers a passion for murder. The mystery itself is quite good with some very interesting twists. It has the feel of a classic English murder mystery novel and it works well. I liked all the characters that I meet over the course of the story and the plot kept me guessing about who the real murderer is and why they did it. A very solid first novel and I look forward to reading the next one.

I give this novel a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.