Title: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Author: Alan Bradley
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 978-0385342308
Copyright: 2009
Pages: 373
Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)
Why I Read It: A friend had read it on Goodreads and I started noticing a lot of other people had as well. I was just jumping on the bandwagon
Where I Obtained the Book: I got it through inter-library loan.
Synopsis: Great literary crime detectives aren’t always born; they’re sometimes discovered, blindfolded and tied up in a dark closet by their nasty older sisters. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce’s bitter home life and vicious sibling war inspires her solitary diversions and “strange talents” tinkering with the chemistry set in the laboratory of their inherited Victorian house, plotting sleuth-like vengeance on Ophelia (17) and Daphne (13), and delving into the forbidden past of her taciturn, widowed father, Colonel de Luce. It comes as no surprise, then, that the material for her next scientific investigation will be the mysterious corpse that she uncovers in the cucumber patch.
Author: Alan Bradley
Publisher: Delacorte Press
ISBN: 978-0385342308
Copyright: 2009
Pages: 373
Quick Review: 4 stars (out of 5)
Why I Read It: A friend had read it on Goodreads and I started noticing a lot of other people had as well. I was just jumping on the bandwagon
Where I Obtained the Book: I got it through inter-library loan.
Synopsis: Great literary crime detectives aren’t always born; they’re sometimes discovered, blindfolded and tied up in a dark closet by their nasty older sisters. Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce’s bitter home life and vicious sibling war inspires her solitary diversions and “strange talents” tinkering with the chemistry set in the laboratory of their inherited Victorian house, plotting sleuth-like vengeance on Ophelia (17) and Daphne (13), and delving into the forbidden past of her taciturn, widowed father, Colonel de Luce. It comes as no surprise, then, that the material for her next scientific investigation will be the mysterious corpse that she uncovers in the cucumber patch.
Review: After a slow start this book turns into a classic mystery, slowly building to a satisfying conclusion. The real charm of this book is the lead character, Flavia de Luce. A highly intelligent eleven year old with a unrelenting passion for justice and a keen mind for chemistry. Her years of dealing with her older sisters has trained her well to handle life’s problems. Consequently no villain is competition for her deductive skills.
The heart of this mystery is the foolishness of youth, and the consequences of not owning your mistakes. It is that cowardness that allows the truly wicked to work their plans. In this story it’s Flavia’s determination that brings those hidden truths out. A great character who I look forward to keeping up with as she grows.
Author Biography: Alan Bradley received the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, as well as the first Saskatchewan Writers Guild Award for Children's Literature. He is the author of many short stories, children's stories, newspaper columns, and the memoir The Shoebox Bible. Bradley lives in Malta with his wife and two calculating cats, and is currently working on the next Flavia de Luce mystery, A Red Herring Without Mustard.
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