Book of the Month–January 2013
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
By: Alan Bradley
This is the first in a series of mystery novels featuring 11-year-old Flavia de Luce. Flavia is no ordinary child, though. A brilliant chemistry enthusiast with an encyclopedic knowledge of poison, Flavia lives with her family in a decaying mansion. In the summer of 1950, Flavia is spending her time looking for excitement, spying on the neighbours and plotting against her sisters in their never-ending war.
When dead bird turns up on the family’s doorstep, a postage stamp pinned to its beak her philatelist father is horrified but Flavia is intrigued. Her father’s argument with a red-headed stanger is also interesting, particularly when Flavia later stumbles upon the man dying in the family’s cucumber patch. After her father confesses to murdering the man, Flavia decides to investigate.
Also available as:
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Acknowledgements and Awards
2007: Debut Dagger
2009: Agatha Award, Best First Novel
2010: Alex Award (nominee)
2010: Anthony Award, Best First Novel
2010: Arthur Ellis Award, Best First Novel
2010: Barry Award, Best First Novel
2010: Dilys Award
2010: Macavity Award, Best First Mystery Novel
2010: Spotted Owl Award
Book Reviews
The Guardian
Quill and Quire
About the Author
Alan Bradley was born in 1938 in Toronto. He spent his childhood in Cobourg. A sickly child, Bradley was often bedridden and reading became his primary form of entertainment. After he completed an education in electronic enginnering, he worked for numerous radio and television stations before spending 25 years at the University of Saskatoon where he was the Director of Television Engineering in the school’s media centre. He retired in 1994 to devote himself to writing and produced numerous screenplays and children’s stories.
In 2006, he was working on another book when Flavia “just materialized”. His wife encouraged him to enter the Debut Dagger competition with a story featuring the girl. The competition requires a previously unpublished novelist to submit the first 3000 words of their novel along with a synopsis. Bradley won'the competition and signed publishing contracts in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States shortly thereafter. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie has now been translated into more than 20 languages.
Author Interviews
Quill and Quire
Toronto Star
Read Alikes
If you liked The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, you may also like:
Other Books by Alan Bradley
Ms. Holmes of Baker Street: the Truth about Sherlock by Alan Bradley and William A.S. Sarjeant
The Shoebox Bible
Other books in the Flavia de Luce series:
The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag
A Red Herring without Mustard
I am Half-Sick of Shadows
Other Fiction:
The Beekeeper’s Apprentice; or, On the Segregation of the Queen by Laurie R. King
Hotel Paradise by Martha Grimes
The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones
Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
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