Book Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

[Please Note: I listened to this book on CD, and the reader, Jayne Entwhistle, was really good.]

It took two recommendations to get me to read this book because I was put off by the sacharin sweetness of the title and feared it would be a book about middle aged (or older) women concluding that life is wonderful because they've overcome everything that makes it difficult. Well, it wasn't about middle aged people at all and I had it all wrong.

The heroine of this book is a hilarious eleven-year-old girl named Flavia de Luce, who lives in an enormous country house in the English countryside. (Her bedroom is the size of a dirigible hangar.) Her passion in life is chemistry, and I do mean PASSION! It is poetry to her. Her mother died in a climbing accident in Tibet, so she lives with her two older sisters and her emotionally absent father, who spends all of his time pursuing a stamp collection.

Early one morning Flavia discovers a dying man in the cucumber patch of their garden. Her father is later arrested for the man's death, but Flavia is always two steps ahead of the police is trying to find out what really happened. Flavia suspects her father may have done it (she heard them arguing the evening before), but she wants to figure it all out.

I enjoyed this book so much that I only let it end because I knew there were two other volumes waiting in the wings with the same characters by the same author.

It is a little difficult to believe that an 11-year-old could have so much wisdom, knowledge, wit, and understanding - but it isn't beyond the realm of possibility. It's possible that Flavia is an unrecognized genius, I suppose. But the fact that she's 11 makes it easier for her to get into and out of dangerous places with ease. She's not above acting 11 (or younger) if throwing a fit is required to obtain access or information, for example.

I highly recommend this book and look forward to reading the other books in the series. I have great respect for Alan Bradley!!! He must be a fascinating person to know.

After listening to my library copy on CD, I bought the book, too, in regular book form. It's just that good!