The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Jayne Entwistle exuberantly portrays 11-year-old Flavia de Luce, the precocious daughter of an English widower in the 1950s. Entwistle depicts Flavia's willingness to plunge into the mystery that develops when a curious dead bird, a threatening stranger, and a dead body lead to her father's arrest for murder. Flavia says it's "the most interesting thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life." As Entwistle's involving narration lets listeners' ears linger on the details of time and place, her secondary characters effectively convey class. Sparring with her older sisters, quoting literary sources, and exhibiting equal parts scientific and historical curiosity, Flavia makes for an adventuresome young crimesolver. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine

February 23, 2009
Fans of Louise Fitzhugh's iconic Harriet the Spy will welcome 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, the heroine of Canadian journalist Bradley's rollicking debut. In an early 1950s English village, Flavia is preoccupied with retaliating against her lofty older sisters when a rude, redheaded stranger arrives to confront her eccentric father, a philatelic devotee. Equally adept at quoting 18th-century works, listening at keyholes and picking locks, Flavia learns that her father, Colonel de Luce, may be involved in the suicide of his long-ago schoolmaster and the theft of a priceless stamp. The sudden expiration of the stranger in a cucumber bed, wacky village characters with ties to the schoolmaster, and a sharp inspector with doubts about the colonel and his enterprising young detective daughter mean complications for Flavia and enormous fun for the reader. Tantalizing hints about a gardener with a shady past and the mysterious death of Flavia's adventurous mother promise further intrigues ahead.