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mmullerm 's review for:
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery
by Alan Bradley
3.5 out of 5 stars for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.
This story, set in the summer of 1950, follows a clever, 11 year-old girl, named Flavia de Luce. Flavia has a passion for chemistry and a penchant for being a bit of a troublemaker.
The mystery starts when a dead black bird is found on her back doorstep with a postage stamp attached to its beak. Things get much more interesting after that...
I was reminded quite a bit of Sherlock Holmes while reading this novel with the chemistry angle and Flavia's superpower ability to be always one step ahead of the inspector, which created a believability gap for me. Some things she came across during her investigation / nosing around were just by sheer luck, and it didn't make sense why the police wouldn't have found the things before she did. The story also dragged for me at some points so these are the main reasons why I deducted 1 1/2 stars from my rating.
However, the overall story was very good and the mystery was fully realized with all the loose ends tied up nicely. Flavia's father reminds me a little bit of my own dad because they both collect stamps, so that was kind of interesting.
I recommend The Sweetness at The Bottom of the Pie if you are looking for a quick, fun mystery novel to read maybe over a long weekend, or a vacation. It is worthwhile if you like mysteries and is an enjoyable story. I'll very likely be reading more in this series.
This story, set in the summer of 1950, follows a clever, 11 year-old girl, named Flavia de Luce. Flavia has a passion for chemistry and a penchant for being a bit of a troublemaker.
The mystery starts when a dead black bird is found on her back doorstep with a postage stamp attached to its beak. Things get much more interesting after that...
I was reminded quite a bit of Sherlock Holmes while reading this novel with the chemistry angle and Flavia's superpower ability to be always one step ahead of the inspector, which created a believability gap for me. Some things she came across during her investigation / nosing around were just by sheer luck, and it didn't make sense why the police wouldn't have found the things before she did. The story also dragged for me at some points so these are the main reasons why I deducted 1 1/2 stars from my rating.
However, the overall story was very good and the mystery was fully realized with all the loose ends tied up nicely. Flavia's father reminds me a little bit of my own dad because they both collect stamps, so that was kind of interesting.
I recommend The Sweetness at The Bottom of the Pie if you are looking for a quick, fun mystery novel to read maybe over a long weekend, or a vacation. It is worthwhile if you like mysteries and is an enjoyable story. I'll very likely be reading more in this series.