Saturday, May 30, 2009

Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie


When the dead body of a stranger lies in the garden of an disheveled ancient family home, what's an eleven year old girl with a passion for chemistry (and a unnatural knowledge of poisons) supposed to do? Solve the mystery of course. Welcome to Flavia's world.

Flavia de Luce is 11 going on 40. She's the neglected youngest daughter of an absent minded stamp collector in Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. With her trusty bicycle Gladys, Flavia is determined to solve this crime. When her father is charged with the murder, it becomes even more important. She doesn't realize that the investigation will lead her to finding out more about her father's past.

Bradley does an excellent job showing us an eccentric dysfunctional family and manages to make it seem "normal" to Flavia. And when her older sisters lock her up in a closet or tell her she was really brought home as a baby from a store, she does what any normal youngest child does. She takes revenge. She just does it a little differently, with poison ivy in a lipstick.

I'm excited that this is to be a series. There are too many de Luce family secrets that have been hinted at and need to be uncovered. As a reader, I am looking forward to seeing Flavia and her sisters growing up in this odd environment. Perfect for traditional mystery fans.

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