Reviews
Author interview
It is June 1950 and a sleepy English village is about to be awakened by the discovery of a dead body in Colonel de Luce's cucumber patch. The police are baffled, and when a dead snipe is deposited on the Colonel's doorstep with a rare stamp impaled on its beak, they are baffled even more. Only the Colonel's daughter, the precocious Flavia -when she's not plotting elaborate revenges against her nasty older sisters in her basement chemical laboratory, that is - has the ingenuity to follow the clues that reveal the victim's identity, and a conspiracy that reached back into the de Luce family's murky past.Flavia and her family are brilliant creations, a darkly playful and wonderfully atmospheric flavour to a plot of delightful ingenuity.
Flavia de Luce is a new breed of detective heroine: she's a pigtailed 11-year-old with a penchant for poison. Join the Flavia Fan Club social network to talk with Alan Bradley and get news about Flavia's next adventures, as well as extracts, photos and discussion with fellow fans.
"To have an 11-year-old girl at the centre of a detective novel for an adult audience, you need to be totally committed to her. And Bradley is. You also need to write with invention, wit, energy and a light touch. And he does. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is as refreshing a book as I have read in a long time, it is charming, clever and funny." Read the full interview on Material Witness
'Flavia is a character that I hope will age very slowly, as I hope to read this series for a good long time. It has a very fresh feel, and a very good sense of time and place. I loved the way the detective was kind to Flavia, almost fatherly, yet keeping to a professional relationship. Her struggles with her sisters were a bright spot in a delightful book. Highly recommended'
Maggie Mason
DEADLY PLEASURES
Read more reviews