This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

“I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak.

It is the summer of 1950-and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home. In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. 'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title. Only she has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim’s identity, and a conspiracy that reaches back into the de Luces’ murky past.Ī thoroughly entertaining romp of a novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is inventive and quick-witted, with tongue-in-cheek humour that transcends the macabre seriousness of its subject.

But then her father confesses to the crime, for the same reason, and it’s up to Flavia to free him of suspicion. Or could he have been killed by the family’s loyal handyman, Dogger… or by the Colonel himself! At that moment, Flavia commits herself to solving the crime - even if it means keeping information from the village police, in order to protect her family. Mullet’s custard pie, and none of the de Luces would have dared to eat the awful thing. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”ĭid the stranger die of poisoning? There was a piece missing from Mrs. For Flavia, the summer begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw: “ I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. And in the early morning Flavia finds a red-headed stranger lying in the cucumber patch and watches him take his dying breath.

A mysterious late-night visitor argues with her aloof father, Colonel de Luce, behind closed doors. The summer of 1950 hasn’t offered up anything out of the ordinary for eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce: bicycle explorations around the village, keeping tabs on her neighbours, relentless battles with her older sisters, Ophelia and Daphne, and brewing up poisonous concoctions while plotting revenge in their home’s abandoned Victorian chemistry lab, which Flavia has claimed for her own.īut then a series of mysterious events gets Flavia’s attention: A dead bird is found on the doormat, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Winner of the 2007 Crime Writers’ Association Debut DaggerĪ delightfully dark English mystery, featuring precocious young sleuth Flavia de Luce and her eccentric family.

Sweetness at the bottom of pie