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A review by styxx
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
3.0
'The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie' by Alan Bradley
Typically when a story's heroine is a child, the target readership is also children. However, 'The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie' is definitely aimed at adults. The style of writing is quite intricate, there are lots of twists and turns, and there is a lot of scientific detail in places too.
Our narrator is eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the youngest of three sisters living with their father in a decaying manor house in rural England during the 1950s. The de Luces are an eccentric family, all absorbed with their own interests to the exclusion of any real relationship with one another. The father is obsessed with stamps, the eldest sister Ophelia with music and boys, the middle sister Daphne with literature, whilst Flavia herself is interested in chemistry.
Their monotonous lifestyle is disrupted by a number of strange incidents. First a dead bird is left on their doorstep, its beak piercing a penny black stamp. Then Flavia overhears an argument between her father and a stranger. Shortly afterwards she stumbles on the body of the same stranger amongst the cucumbers.
It becomes clear that the stranger was murdered and the only real suspect appears to be her father. Flavia takes on the challenge of finding out who the stranger was, what he was doing at their home, and who killed him in an attempt to save their father from the noose.
Flavia is a distinctly quirky heroine. The sort of child who might be described as too sharp for her own good and who is obsessed with poisons to an almost unhealthy degree. None of which make her seem particularly appealing. Yet it is her very eccentricity which makes her interesting and encourages the reader to go along with her efforts to unravel the puzzle.
Typically when a story's heroine is a child, the target readership is also children. However, 'The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie' is definitely aimed at adults. The style of writing is quite intricate, there are lots of twists and turns, and there is a lot of scientific detail in places too.
Our narrator is eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, the youngest of three sisters living with their father in a decaying manor house in rural England during the 1950s. The de Luces are an eccentric family, all absorbed with their own interests to the exclusion of any real relationship with one another. The father is obsessed with stamps, the eldest sister Ophelia with music and boys, the middle sister Daphne with literature, whilst Flavia herself is interested in chemistry.
Their monotonous lifestyle is disrupted by a number of strange incidents. First a dead bird is left on their doorstep, its beak piercing a penny black stamp. Then Flavia overhears an argument between her father and a stranger. Shortly afterwards she stumbles on the body of the same stranger amongst the cucumbers.
It becomes clear that the stranger was murdered and the only real suspect appears to be her father. Flavia takes on the challenge of finding out who the stranger was, what he was doing at their home, and who killed him in an attempt to save their father from the noose.
Flavia is a distinctly quirky heroine. The sort of child who might be described as too sharp for her own good and who is obsessed with poisons to an almost unhealthy degree. None of which make her seem particularly appealing. Yet it is her very eccentricity which makes her interesting and encourages the reader to go along with her efforts to unravel the puzzle.