Bookish Review: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a lovely mystery/crime novel by a first-time (70-year-old) novelist. The protagonist, Flavia de Luce, is quite charming. At 11 years old, she has a love of chemistry, an obsession with poisons, and takes great joy in tormenting her older sisters. When she stumbles across a dying man in their garden at 4 in the morning, she is suddenly caught up in solving the mystery and proving her father innocent of murder. Tied up in the investigation are rare stamps, an apparent suicide from her father's schoolboy days, a jacksnipe, a cream pie, and some strangers in town. Flavia is brilliant and you'll stick with her every step of the way as she plans to outsmart the inspectors and solve the mystery for herself. Luckily, this is only the first Flavia mystery, with more on the way