Alan Bradley introduces the reader to eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce in the first book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I'll be honest, I picked up the book many times in several book stores only to put it aside. I just wasn't sure if I really wanted to read it. Then on another cruise through Victoria's wonderful book stores someone mentioned it was a good read. So I purchased it, and then after reading it waited for the second one to come out in paperback and now wait with bated breath for the third adventure.
Flavia de Luce is charming, witty and oh so wickedly funny! Bishop's Lacey the English town she lives in joins Agatha Christie's St. Mary Mead as a place you'd like to visit. Mysteries being solved by an eleven-year-old girl wise beyond her years is a pleasurable read. Set in 1950s England, we have the country police officers, a cast of villagers, Flavia's absent-minded father, her two older sisters, the butler-handyman who is her friend and the well-meaning housekeeper-cook.
The second book is The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag (great book titles) and Flavia returns with the same cast of characters we met in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I enjoyed the second book as much as the first, if not more. Both books are a delight to read! Flavia de Luce has more spunk than Miss Marble and could hold her own with Hercule Poirot.
Two great reads for the summer.
I'm look forward to A Red Herring without Mustard and have heard book #4 is to be released in November 2011, with two more books to follow. If Alan Bradley only writes six Flavia de Luce murder mysteries I will just have to be content with that, even if I hope he would do a few more.
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