Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
by Alan Bradley
Delacourte Press / Bantam Dell Books
Hardcover, 400 pages
$23.00
ISBN: 978-0385343497
Reviewed by Gray Bridges
Arthur Conan Doyle meets Emily Bronte meets Harper Lee in this debut novel that will charm readers with its fresh voice, cast of captivating characters and exciting mystery. The book opens with the protagonist, eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, locked in a closet and comes full circle, when in the last chapters, our young heroine finds herself trapped by someone much more menacing than conniving older sisters.
This delightful “who-done-it” begins when Flavia discovers a dead jack snipe on the doorstep. This is no ordinary dead bird; its beak pierces a rare and valuable postage stamp. Who would “mail’ such a thing to their family? Are events somehow related to her father, an avid philatelist? Or perhaps the mystery is related to the dead man in the garden. Flavia stumbles upon the stranger who utters puzzling last words as he draws his last breath.
The setting is a made-for-mystery lovers’ dream with “just enough” historical details. Buckshaw is a centuries-old crumbling mansion (complete with Victorian chemist’s laboratory) in the British countryside during the 1950s. The current Georgian house was built to replace the Elizabethan original that had been “burned to the ground by villagers who suspected the de Luces’ of Orange sympathies.”
Characters include a distracted and distant father who has never recovered from his wife’s early demise (and spends hours sitting in her Rolls Royce in the carriage house,) a bake-happy cook / housekeeper who has not quite mastered the art of the custard pie, Dogger, a gardener with a mysterious past of his own, older sisters; pianist and boy-crazy 17-year-old Ophelia (Feely) and bookworm thirteen-year-old Daphne (Daffy,) and a host of enjoyable locals from the village. And then there are the ancestors who once roamed the halls of the great mansion, including a Boo Radley-esque great uncle who had a mental breakdown and hence confined himself to the laboratory.
Not since To Kill A Mockingbird’s Scout have I so enjoyed a young protagonist. Young protagonists these days (especially on TV and in the movies) are wisecracking smart asses whose knowledge of the world defies their tender years. Though Bradley’s Flavia IS a child prodigy, she is a believable character with the all the curiosity and innocence of a child and the quirkiness of a child-genius. (Such as her penchant for “clever” revenge and her fascination with poisons.) Like me, fellow readers are going to LOVE Flavia and want to see more of her. I would also enjoy reading books where I can experience Bradley’s world through the eyes of characters who were minor players in this novel.
Maybe I should stop critiquing book jackets, but as a painter, visuals are hard for me to ignore. I found the cover’s clean lines, uncluttered page, simple graphic of the bird and postage stamp, black on green design with a splash of red to be eye-catching and easy to read. In other words, this book will stand out on the shelf. They say “you can’t judge a book by its cover,” but people often do. This cover is a winner, as is the story. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a must-read for every mystery lover!
Copyright ©2009 Gray Bridges