Allow me to introduce Flavia De Luce, very precocious eleven-year-old heroine of Alan Bradley’s deliciously witty debut crime novel The Sweetness At The Bottom Of the Pie. Flavia, the story’s narrator, is a tremendously resourceful girl, with an affinity for chemistry and a passion for poison, and she knows not only the Latin terminology but the chemical formulas as well.
Set in 1950 England, at a decaying mansion that is home to Flavia, her two awwwful older sisters, and her very removed taciturn father, the feel of the tale is more Victorian than post-World War II. (Veddy lovely for all of us Anglophiles!) A series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, Flavia’s home, beginning with the appearance on the kitchen doorstep of a dead bird (not native to England) with a rare postage stamp pinned to its beak. Hours later, in the middle of the night, Flavia hears a noise, goes downstairs and out into the garden and promptly stumbles upon a dying man sprawled in the cucumber patch. She manages to catch his dying word: “Vale.” (Latin for “farewell.”) Summing up these bizarre events, she says, “ I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that ever happened to me in my entire life."
And so Flavia (and the readers) are off and running. Or riding her trusty friend, a bicycle named Gladys. Along the sometimes breathtaking way we all meet the village constabulary, strange men walking the countryside, and the odd servants who attend the De Luce family. And as the mystery begins to strangle her family, Flavia decides it is up to her to solve the murder and save her family and her home.
A clever story with a true original voice, The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie is a wonderfully fun and funny read. Take it with you to the beach, to the pool, or wherever you may go this summer. You will love it.
Vale.
