Wednesday, October 7, 2020

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Bradley)



I continue with my plunge into mystery stories (though I am reading other books as well, of course).

The latest mystery is The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. 

What a delightful find.

The protagonist is precocious 11-year-old girl, Flavia de Luce. She is perhaps a bit to a precocious, but she is still an enjoyable character. She certainly held my interest. 

The plot is clever (though there are some implausible details). The pace is great. The historical details - the book is set in post-World War II Great Britain - ring true. Even the chemistry details seem plausible (though, admittedly, I'm not a chemist, so I don't know enough to know if some of them are wrong). 

I did figure out the killer part way through the book, but there were still some nice twists involving this perpetrator.

I enjoyed the book, and when I finished it I wondered if it was part of a series. I checked and discovered it indeed is.

I would read more of those books, though not immediately. As I mentioned, Flavia is a bit too precocious, and I think I'd tire of her quickly. 

I recommend this book.   

Now, back to Rod Dreher's latest look at America (Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents) 

Pax et bonum

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