The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie

A few months after reading The City & The City, I got around to reading the other mystery on my list - Alan Bradley's debut novel, The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie. This one lacks 'City's weirdness: it's a straight-up classic mystery in style and pace, and I enjoyed it a lot. Its primary charm is the setting of a 1950 manor house and village in the British countryside, and the introduction of the unlikely, chemistry-obsessed heroine, eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce. The other thematic element of the novel is stamp collecting (Flavia's father's hobby), which is delightfully used as a vehicle of intrigue and drama, in ways you probably never thought possible.

Clever and wickedly funny throughout, with a great feel for characters and setting, it's of that style of novel that finds you racing into each new chapter, and clamoring for more of Flavia when it's done. (A second novel is already in the works.)

I think my mom would especially enjoy this one!