The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

Last summer, I found myself in need of a good book. Excited by the fact that I ACTUALLY owned a library card (long story), I was itching for a good read that could keep me occupied on an upcoming long plane ride with an even longer layover. I had always enjoyed mysteries and was intrigued by the "Mystery/Suspense" section of the local library. I had previously borrowed a promising book that turned out to be just as cheesy as its title (and premise... a cook who solves mysteries). I hadn't even made it to the third chapter of that one...something about a rare spice that had been smuggled in to the country worth a lot of money... I don't know. I wasn't  on the edge of my seat. I didn't care what happened... With that bad taste in my mouth, I looked for something else to catch my eye. Every time I go to the library, a sing-song voice in my head recites the old adage "You can't judge a book by its cover". Well any of you who have gone into a library, or even picked up a book... you KNOW you do. Unless a book has a lot of publicity, or a known author, you almost HAVE to judge, at least somewhat, by the cover. Whether it is the font, the picture on the cover, or the title... judgement is made. For example, with a title like Secret Seduction and the characters depicted on the cover are missing clothes (or are about to be)... you know what kind of book you're getting into. If you're anything like me.... You'd rather the characters keep their clothes on.... or at least have the main point of the book not be a description of them taking their clothes off.... Is it too much to ask for a PG rated, entertaining, book that IS NOT written on a third grade reading level that does not try to impart some not-so-subtle questionable, fluffy religious agenda? A question I find myself asking often...

So, there I was, wandering through the Mystery/Suspense section, I picked up a pretty lime-y green book (this has to be promising, right?) On the cover was the outline of a dead bird with a postage stamp on its beak. Then I read the title, "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". Ok.... I'm intrigued. Pies, dead birds, postage stamps... and a whimsical type font. Good start. I then turned to the back and read the description. Words like "summer of 1950", "passion for poison", "both appalled and delighted murder had come to Buckshaw" jumped out at me. It passed the cover test, the synopsis sounds interesting, and the main character is 11 years old? Surely this will be PG rated... and the cover is pretty.... I was still skeptical since I felt the same way about the last let-down I checked out... but I decided to give it a whirl.

I was so glad I did. The reader is introduced to a spunky, smart, 11 year old growing up in provincial England. Miss Flavia de Luce is the youngest of three sisters raised by a widowed, preoccupied father. Left to her own devices, Flavia developed a love for chemistry and in particular, poison. Having her own, working chemistry lab inside her house, her sanctum sanctorum (thanks to a strange uncle), she not only enjoys cooking up her own concoctions, recreating her uncle's experiments, and as any youngest child.... plotting sweet revenge on her cruel, disdainful older sisters. 

I can't word it better than this review- "When Flavia discovers a murdered stranger in the cucumber patch outside her bedroom window early one morning, she decides to leave aside her flasks and Bunsen burners to solve the crime herself, much to the chagrin of the local authorities. But who can blame her? What else does an eleven-year-old science prodigy have to do when left to her own devices?...Flavia takes off on her trusty bicycle Gladys to catch a murderer." --Lauren Nemroff

Ok, so what does this have to do with PIE? The title of the book comes from the following quote:

"Unless some sweetness at the bottom lie, who cares for all the crinkling of the pie?" 

 -William King, The Art of Cookery

It got me thinking about how I came across this book, and how many times I've been betrayed by the cover of so many books. Even though I really love pie crust, and will eat it plain... pie isn't really worth it unless the filling is good. The same applies to books. If the story is bland, it doesn't matter what it looks like on the outside. I was pleasantly surprised by this one; it's pretty sweet. 

-E