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

by Alan Bradley

[lovelybookshelf]

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is the first book in the Flavia de Luce Mystery series. A good friend of mine, whose taste in books I share, has been recommending the Flavia books to me for a while. I finally purchased a copy and gave it a try.

Oh, Flavia. What a character! I love her wit, her intelligence, her slightly misanthropic ways, and how she's just a bit of a holy terror. I was completely absorbed in this mystery, just like when I was a kid devouring every Nancy Drew, Bobbsey Twins, or Trixie Belden story I could find. I turned page after page not only to find out what happened next, but to see what Flavia would say next. She kept me laughing with statements such as: "If poisons were ponies, I'd put my money on cyanide," and "There were far too many books to search, so I tried to think of which of them would be least likely to be looked into. Of course! The Bible!"

I enjoy fiction that inspires me to search the web to learn more, and this book didn't disappoint. There is a healthy dose of history in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and that combined with the humor and the plot made for a very entertaining read. I wish I hadn't waited so long to give this a try, and I'm looking forward to reading the other books in the series.