Review – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Alan Bradley’s first Flavia de Luce Mystery Novel

Aug 23, 2009

With quirky humour and a fascinating young heroine, readers will be hooked from the opening pages until the mystery of the body in the cucumber patch is finally solved.

A mystery story with a broad appeal, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Orion, 2009) by Alan Bradley introduces Flavia de Luce, a bright and precocious young sleuth with an off-beat sense of humour and an enquiring mind.

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Flavia is very-nearly-eleven-years-old, the youngest of three daughters in the de Luce family living with their father, Colonel de Luce in their manor home in 1950s rural England.

When a bird is found dead on their doorstep with a rare stamp impaled on its beak, the usually distant and unemotional Colonel seems genuinely disturbed. The appearance of a dead body in the cucumber patch soon after has Flavia looking for connections and searching for clues in unexpected places.

With a background of sibling rivalry and a quaint rural setting, the fascinatingly quirky Flavia doggedly pursues the story behind the mysterious events, determined to discover what has upset her beloved father and beat the local detectives to the solution to the case.

A Fascinating New Fictional Detective

For those tired of world-weary private eyes and other familiar fictional detectives, Flavia de Luce offers something fresh and innovative.

While Flavia’s brilliance and inquisitive nature leads her along a path of clues to solve the mystery at hand, she retains sufficient childish quirks, such as her ongoing rivalry with her two older sisters, to ensure that readers never forget that she is a child.

Flavia’s obvious brilliance and mature and inquisitive outlook regarding the events unfolding around her prevents this book from becoming a children’s detective story in the style of Trixie Belden and other teen sleuths. Despite Flavia’s age, this is a mystery that will be enjoyed by adult readers, but will also appeal to teens interested in detective stories.

The trivia relating to science, music, literature, history and other topics liberally scattered throughout the story is fascinating and reveals a depth of general knowledge on the part of the author that is quite diverse. Flavia’s own fascination with poisons, which she concocts in her fully-equipped Victorian chemical laboratory, add a rather dark edge to her quirky personality.

Alan Bradley

A former teacher of scriptwriting and TV production in the University of Saskatchewan’s extension division for adult learners, Alan Bradley has previously published a memoir titled The Shoebox Bible (McClelland & Stewart, 2006) and co-authored Ms Holmes of Baker Street (University of Alberta Press, 2004)with William A S Sarjeant.

Readers interested with keeping up with the latest news can join the Flavia de Luce fan club.

A Fun and Compelling New Mystery Series

Flavia is simply beguiling as the child sleuth out to solve the mystery that arrives on her family’s doorstep. Her quick wit, boundless inquisitiveness, fascinatingly eccentric family and a cast of quirky characters will keep readers turning pages and waiting eagerly for the next instalment in the Flavia de Luce Mystery series.

With a macabre and witty humour underlying this story, readers will enjoy the journey as much as the destination as they follow Flavia’s efforts to find the murderer and prove her father’s innocence.

The copyright of the article Review – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie in Cozy Mysteries is owned by Susan Whelan. Permission to republish Review – The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.