The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Flavia de Luce, #1)

by Alan Bradley

It is June 1950, and a sleepy English village is about to be awakened by the discovery of a dead body in Colonel de Luce's cucumber patch. The police are baffled, and when a dead snipe is deposited on the Colonel's doorstep with a rare stamp impaled on its beak, they are baffled even more. Only the Colonel's daughter, the precocious Flavia - when she's not plotting elaborate acts of revenge against her nasty older sisters in her basement chemistry laboratory, that is - has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim's identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luce family's murky past.

Flavia and her family are brilliant creations, adding a darkly playful and wonderfully atmospheric flavour to a plot of delightful ingenuity.

Reviewed by Eve1972 on

5 of 5 stars

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Flavia De Luce, one of the single best character names I have ever had the pleasure to run across! I LOVED this book, adored it really. I am never sure when starting a book where the main character is a child if I will really be able to "get into it", but Flavia is just such a charming and captivating character that you can't help but to be pulled into her world, a world full of entertaining characters and a fabulous little mystery. The author, who is a 70 year old Canadian, and won the Dagger award for "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" has finished "The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag," the second book in the series about Flavia and it is set to be released in 2010. I for one, cannot wait!

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  • Started reading
  • 26 July, 2009: Finished reading
  • 26 July, 2009: Reviewed