Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley



The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, quite strangely (and, as our proprietor suggested, distastefully) titled, is truly a remarkably original and intelligent debut novel from Canadian author Alan Bradley. Guided by an eleven-year-old protagonist--with a precocious vocabulary and a keen interest in poisons--readers are led hop-skip across the English countryside in order to unravel the mystery surrounding her father and his curious stamp collection.

Early one morning, young Flavia de Luce and her father find a dead Jack Snipe on the doorstep with a stamp pierced by the end of its bill. Colonel de Luce, as Flavia notices, reacts in an odd way: with fear. The next morning, Flavia discovers a man lying in the cucumber patch, and as she draws near, he breathes his last word to her ear: Vale.

Confused? I bet you are. But intrigued? I know I was.

Once I began this book, I couldn't put it down. I'm never one for any old mystery novel--especially those that ignore character development and depth in exchange for an engaging plot--but I must say The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie does not sacrifice a thing. It is both well-written and comical, with an original voice and a cast of characters overflowing with oddity and nuance. AND, I really enjoyed reading it: it had me laughing and it had me guessing.
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is the first in a series of Flavia de Luce books by Alan Bradley. For his first novel, Bradley received the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger Award.

0 comments: