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A review by zbmorgan
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
4.0
A marvelous mystery with a typically inverted English family as atmosphere. The narrator/protagonist, 11 year old Flavia, is written perfectly, in all her dreadful, emotionless, pleased-weith-herself glory. Your heart will bleed for her and for her sisters and father, as by the end of the book, it's no secret how anyone got to the dysfunctional way they are. If the uncultured are raised by wolves, then this family, while not outrightly evil, was probably raised by de Borgias.
The mystery is also well done- when a stranger drops dead in the cucumber patch, Flavia suspects her father, her father suspects his PTSD suffering man of all work, and we are introduced to an older crime that may have something to do with this one. The story of the stamp collecting and the descriptions of the laboratory are at once fascinating and familiar to anyone who's ancestors may have hailed from England, and the setting (post-WWII country england) is perfect but not invasive.
The audio version (read by Jayne Entwhistle) takes about 10 minutes to get used to, as Flavia is voiced as a girl who attackes everything with relish. While distracting at first, it turns out to be perfect.
The mystery is also well done- when a stranger drops dead in the cucumber patch, Flavia suspects her father, her father suspects his PTSD suffering man of all work, and we are introduced to an older crime that may have something to do with this one. The story of the stamp collecting and the descriptions of the laboratory are at once fascinating and familiar to anyone who's ancestors may have hailed from England, and the setting (post-WWII country england) is perfect but not invasive.
The audio version (read by Jayne Entwhistle) takes about 10 minutes to get used to, as Flavia is voiced as a girl who attackes everything with relish. While distracting at first, it turns out to be perfect.