"Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie, who cares for all the crinkling of the pie?"
William King, The Art of Cookery (1708)
This quote appears right before the title page of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. This mystery novel is the first in a series of six mysteries, which focus on one young heroine, Flavia de Luce. For a bit of interesting background's sake, this book is Alan Bradley's first novel. At the time of its publishing, he was seventy-years-old. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is certainly not a bad start for the gentleman. The best way to tell you about this story is to give you an excerpt from the back cover:It is the summer of 1950--and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events.... Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest.... "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."
The setting: Set in England in the 1950s, Bradley adds charm to this tale of an eleven-year-old detective. The description of the buildings, fields, graveyards--everything is spectacular. The added history of England stamps and treasures is so well put that I was not at all bored by the details. This, of course, is mainly due to Bradley's wonderful command of the English language, which brings us to...
The writing: Impeccable, and, I would even venture to say, delicious; that describes the writing of Sweetness. It almost makes my mouth water just to read some beautifully written script. It has been too long for me that I have read a contemporary novel that had meat too it. Not only does Alan Bradley provide the meat, he provides the loaded baked potato with it. I considered giving a few examples, but each part I really liked gave a piece of the puzzle, which cannot, of course, be revealed.
The mystery side of this novel was obviously thought out in detail. I really did not know how the story would end, and I love it that way. It is always disappointing to reach the halfway point and realize that you already know who-dun-it. There were just enough trails that made me think I knew what happened, but in the end I realized that I was wrong.
The character(s): Flavia de Luce is a charming, witty, sarcastic, antagonistic eleven-year-old. I have to say that I identified with her on many levels, starting with the sarcasm. Her humor produced many laughs for me, and her ability to converse with her seniors makes for hilarious scenes. She is, in a way, an adult mind trapped in the body of a child, though, on second thought, she is probably a lot smarter than most adults. Her love of chemistry also got to me, since I am a lover of chemicals as well. This also added a nice thread through the story that only comes together at the very end.
I won't mention the other characters in detail, but they each play a lovely role in the storyline. Each character is developed sufficiently to give the reader a good description of them, without being overly detailed.
The result: Five stars for Alan Bradley! I will definitely purchase the next novels, and I will read them with the utmost joy. The next books, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, is already out and book three, A Red Herring Without Mustard, is due next summer, according to flaviadeluce.com.
If you are looking for an enjoyable, rich mystery, be sure to try Alan Bradley's The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Oh, and I didn't even mention the appeal of these titles! If you go to the website mentioned above you can see the names for all of the Flavia de Luce stories. I'm excited to read the next one!
