Flavia de Luce 11 is an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. In the summer of 1950, inexplicable events strike Buckshaw, her decaying mansion home. A dead bird is on the doorstep, a postage stamp on its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man dying in the cucumber patch. His last words must save her father imprisoned for his murder.
Since I'm on a mystery kick, I decided to check out the Flavia de Luce series since the premise - eleven year old intelligent child-sleuth - sounded interesting. So I borrowed The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie from the library.
This is a fun mystery, quick to read, but I had a bit of trouble with believing Flavia as the narrator. She is supposed to be intelligent, nerdy, and self-educated but her vocabulary didn't fit that of a child, let alone one who has extensively in the sciences. For instance, a metaphor that compared furniture of two different eras/styles using the metaphor of an old man watching a mistress taking off her stockings. Coming as it does in a chapter where Flavia explores her mother's room it grates. Good central mystery, though. Not going on to the rest of the series now, but one to keep in mind for the future.
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