“The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie” by Alan Bradley – The Mind of a Scientist

It seems that the mystery genre has become a bit saturated lately with murder mysteries where the protagonists are either journalists or actually working with the police force… and it makes sense; after all, who better to solve murders than the people who have been trained for it?

However, this search for realism has left a void in the world of murder mysteries; there are very little sleuths left out there, and that disappoints me. Sleuths are generally more interesting to see work as they have to rely much more on their own minds and senses and less on technology and laboratories.

Sometimes, enjoyment takes priority above fidelity, which is why I was rather pleased when I read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley. It is the first in a series of books titled Flavia de Luce, and in it the protagonist is a young aspiring chemist sleuth, whose name is, as you can most likely guess, Flavia de Luce.

In this particular book we are introduced to our heroine, whose outlook on life is rather scientific and less guided by emotions than many other characters. She approaches everything from a perspective as logical as possible, and that goes even for the weirder moments in her life as they unfold in this first book.

To give you a bit of an idea what this book is about, it takes place during the summer of 1950, and the young Flavia de Luce is researching her days away at her mansion of Buckshaw. Suddenly, a series of mysterious events pique her curiosity, as a dead bird with a stamp pinned to its beak is found on her doorstep.

A few hours later, Flavia encounters a man lying in a cucumber batch, and witnesses as he departs the world of the living. A bit shocked at first, Flavia recognizes that this moment doesn’t call for fear, but rather, gratitude; it is the most exciting moment of her life so far, and quite assuredly, the murder won’t be solving itself.

I have to say that The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie reminded me a lot of those classic British murder mysteries, especially ones penned by Agatha Christie. The setting is rather quaint, high-class and charming, with the events unfolding in a seemingly-isolated corner of this world where paradise reigns… apart from the murder that is. Where it diverges from classic works is in its spry protagonist and tongue-in-cheek humor, of which the book has plenty.

Flavia is definitely a delight to follow around, as her young age leads her to numerous mistakes and impasses which she manages to overcome with her intellect. And that’s probably my favorite part about this book: the characters all use logic, reasoning and intelligence to shed light on this rather captivating (and perhaps even seemingly-surrealistic) mystery, rather than luck or a Deus Ex Machina.

All in all, those in search of a lighter murder mystery which is still reminiscent of the older styles used in the genre, then I can definitely recommend this book; it scores virtual perfection in all the categories, from the title to the nature of the mystery itself.

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Alan Bradley Personal site Alan Bradley is a Canadian author whose body of work mostly revolves around the mystery genre, being best-known for penning the Flavia de Luce series, which begins with the book The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. On July 5th, 2007, Bradley was awarded the Dagger award in London.