The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Bradley is the first book in his Flavia de Luce series. In the summer of 1950, eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce's boring life at Buckshaw, the family's old English mansion, is suddenly turned upside down. First a dead jack snipe with a postage note on its beak appears on the doorstep, and her normally unflappable father is visibly upset. Then she wakes during the night to find her father arguing with a red headed man, whom she finds lying in the cucumber patch poisoned and breathing his final breaths the next morning. Instead of being upset, Flavia, whose passionate about chemistry and most especially about poisons, is intrigued; and being treated like a little girl by the Inspector who arrives to examine the remains is the perfect motivation to set out and solve the mystery on her own. She must work quickly to save her father, who is arrested for the crime, by uncovering part of his past and solving another 20 year old murder.
It took me a few chapters to get into the book. The first chapter or two have more about the back and forth contentious relationship between Flavia and her two older sisters, which I actually found to be a bit of a turn off. Once the story began to focus more on the murder itself, my interest level definitely picked up. I wasn't completely surprised by the ending. I could see where the book was headed, but it still held my interest to stay up late and finish the book on Friday night. I plan on reading the next book in the series. It's a well-written, fun read for ages 13 and up.
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