The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a mystery by Alan Bradley published in 2009. Set in the English countryside in 1950, it features Flavia de Luce, an 11-year-old amateur sleuth who pulls herself away from her beloved chemistry lab in order to clear her father in a murder investigation. Bradley, a first-time novelist, wrote the book after winning the 2007 Debut Dagger Award and selling the publishing rights in three countries, based on the first chapter and a synopsis. Well received by critics as an old-fashioned mystery featuring an unforgettable protagonist, the novel has won multiple awards and is the first in a proposed 10-book series.

Sweetness at the Bottom of the pie
Front cover of US/Canada first edition
AuthorAlan Bradley
Cover artistJoe Montgomery (US)
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
SeriesFlavia de Luce Mysteries
GenreMystery
PublisherOrion (UK)
Delacorte Press (US)
Publication date
22 January 2009 (UK)
10 February 2009 (Canada)
28 April 2009 (US)
Media typePrint (Hardcover & Paperback)
Audiobook
E-book
Pages304 (UK first edition)
384 (US first edition)
ISBN978-0-385-34230-8 (US)
ISBN 978-0-385-66582-7 (Canada)
ISBN 978-0-7528-9194-1 (UK)
ISBN 978-1-4104-1917-0 (large print)
OCLC256534817

Plot

As the novel opens, Flavia Sabina de Luce schemes revenge against her two older sisters, Ophelia (17) and Daphne (13), who have locked her inside a closet in Buckshaw, the family's country manor home located in the English village of Bishop's Lacey. Flavia has braces and pigtails like a typical 11-year-old girl, but she is also a brilliant amateur chemist with a specialty in poisons and a fully equipped, personal laboratory on the top floor of her home. With her scientific notebook at the ready, she steals her oldest sister's lipstick, adds poison ivy extract, and then waits, eagerly anticipating changes in Ophelia's complexion. Flavia is especially jealous of her oldest sister because, at 17, she is the only one of the three girls with memories of their mother, Harriet, a free spirit who disappeared on a mountaineering adventure in Tibet 10 years earlier and is presumed dead. Harriet's disappearance devastated their father, Colonel Haviland "Jacko" de Luce, a philatelist and former amateur illusionist who spends most of his time poring over his stamp collection. The family shares their home with loyal retainer Arthur Wellesley Dogger, who once saved Colonel de Luce's life during the war and now works as Buckshaw's gardener, suffering frequent bouts of memory loss and hallucinations due to posttraumatic stress disorder from his time as a prisoner of war.

Mysterious events begin to occur when Mrs. Mullet, Buckshaw's housekeeper and cook, discovers a dead jack snipe on the porch with a Penny Black stamp pierced through its beak. Then, Flavia and Dogger overhear a heated argument between Colonel de Luce and a red-headed stranger who shortly turns up dead in the family cucumber patch. When Colonel de Luce is arrested for the crime, Flavia takes to her bicycle, Gladys, and begins an investigation in the village of Bishop's Lacey, interviewing suspects, gathering clues, and compiling research at the library, always staying ahead of Inspector Hewitt and the police department. As she single-handedly solves the crime, she uncovers the truth behind a 20-year-old apparent suicide at Colonel de Luce's alma mater, Greyminster. The suicide victim, housemaster and Latin scholar Grenville Twining, and the red-headed stranger in the cucumber patch, Horace "Bony" Bonepenny, both uttered "Vale" as a last word. The trail connecting their deaths also includes political intrigue, rare Ulster Avenger stamps, sleight of hand, theft, blackmail, and murder.

Major theme

Bradley describes the theme as "youthful idealism"[1] and how far it can take someone "if it's not stamped out, as it so often is."[1] Thinking back to his own childhood, he identifies with Flavia's 11-year-old zeal, remembering the "feeling of being absolutely unstoppable,"[2] capable of anything. He explains, "when you're that age, you sometimes have a great burning enthusiasm that is very deep and very narrow, and that is something that has always intrigued me - that world of the 11-year-old that is so quickly lost."[3] Reviewer Francisca Goldsmith notes this theme as well, suggesting that readers "may come away with a slightly altered view of what is possible for a headstrong girl to achieve."[4]

Style

The writing style in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie has been described as reminiscent of the "Golden Age of crime writing," influenced by the author's appreciation for the work of W. J. Burley, G. K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Josephine Tey.[5] Reviewer Lucy Clark compared Bradley's style to that of Agatha Christie, calling The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie a "delightfully old-fashioned mystery."[6] Kirkus Reviews compared the book's "intellectual asides" to that of Jonathan Gash.[7]

Development history

In the spring of 2006, Bradley had been working on a different book[8] set in the 1950s, when the plot developed to include a detective character arriving at a country house to find a little girl in the driveway, sitting "on a camp stool doing something with a notebook and a pencil."[5] That little girl was Flavia. Bradley explains "she walked onto the page of another book I was writing, and simply hijacked the story."[5] "I can't take any credit for Flavia at all,"[9] he says. "She just materialized."[9]

When Bradley's wife heard author Louise Penny, a 2004 Debut Dagger award runner-up,[10] on the radio talking about the British crime-writing competition,[11] she encouraged her husband to enter.[5] She advised him to abandon the original book he had been writing and "send the stuff about the girl on the camp stool," instead.[5] The competition, which is open to anyone who has not yet published a novel commercially,[12] requires would-be novelists to submit the first 3,000 words (or less), along with a 500-1,000 word synopsis.[13] Writing the draft of the first chapter "took Bradley just a couple of days, but he then spent weeks polishing it, only just sneaking the first pages of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie in under the final deadline."[2]

He won the 2007 Debut Dagger "based on a chapter and a synopsis,"[14] and "signed a three-book deal with Orion for a crime series centering on 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce."[14] Through agent Denise Bukowski, he also auctioned U.S. rights to Bantam Books and Canadian rights to Doubleday Canada, securing three separate three-book deals for a proposed six-book series, based on a 17-page submission.[15] Calling the submission fresh and original, Kristin Cochrane of Doubleday Canada admitted: "we've rarely, if ever bought fiction on so little material."[9] Orion's Bill Massey agreed, remarking that "it was just a chapter, but it was so outstanding that it made me realise he is a real talent, and that he had an idea that could be a really terrific series."[14] Massey further explained that "Flavia just seemed so alive on the page, and her voice was so distinctive and engaging."[9] After Bradley picked up the Dagger award in London on his first trip to England, the Canadian author took a few weeks off and then "sat down and wrote Sweetness in seven months flat."[2]

Reception

Critics almost universally praised the novel upon its publication, primarily citing the compelling character portrayal of 11-year-old lead detective, Flavia de Luce. Reviewers have called Flavia brilliant,[7][16] bold,[16] irresistible,[7] incorrigible,[7] precocious,[16][17][18] adorable,[16] and unique.[18] For Canadian Literature, Beverly Haun wrote "Flavia is a gem of a character; her precocity offset by her emotional vulnerability makes a winning combination."[19] Marilyn Stasio for The New York Times Book Review agreed, proclaiming Flavia "impressive as a sleuth and enchanting as a mad scientist," but "most endearing as a little girl who has learned how to amuse herself in a big lonely house."[20] Reviewer Paula Todd for The Globe and Mail (Canada), however, was not impressed. Calling Flavia "too much of a caricature to appeal to the subtlety-seeking adult mystery reader," she declared the language "often tedious" and the references "too obscure" for younger readers.[21] Todd wrote "the burning question a few chapters in is not whodunit, but who wants to read it? To whom, exactly, is this book meant to appeal?"[21] Other reviewers have noted strong appeal to a wide range of readers. Michele Leber for Library Journal noted "appeal for cozy lovers and well beyond"[18] while Francisca Goldsmith for School Library Journal suggested "mystery fans, Anglophiles, and science buffs will delight"[4] in The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Judy Coon for Booklist insisted "only those who dislike precocious young heroines with extraordinary vocabulary and audacious courage can fail to like this amazingly entertaining book."[17]

Awards and nominations
AwardYearResult
Agatha Award, Best First Novel 2009 Winner[22]
Alex Award 2010 Nominated[23]
Amelia Bloomer List, Young Adult Fiction 2010 Among 18 winners[24]
Anthony Award, Best First Novel 2010 Nominated[25]
Arthur Ellis Awards, Best First Novel 2010 Winner[26]
Barry Award, Best First Novel 2010 Winner[27]
Debut Dagger Award 2007 Winner[11]
Dilys Award 2010 Winner[28]
Macavity Awards, Best First Mystery Novel 2010 Winner[29]
Spotted Owl Award 2010 Winner[30]
YALSA Best Books for Young Adults 2010 Among 90 winners[31]
YRCA, Senior Division 2012 Nominated

References
  1. Richards, Linda L. (11 February 2009). "Author Snapshot: Alan Bradley". January Magazine. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  2. Morrow, Fiona (14 February 2009). "At 70 a Novelist Is Born". The Globe and Mail. Canada. LexisNexis Academic (subscription required). Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  3. Lynch, Brian (26 February 2009). "On the Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Q&A with Author Alan Bradley". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  4. Goldsmith, Francisca (May 2009). "Review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley". School Library Journal. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (subscription required). 55 (5): 140. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  5. "Interview: Alan Bradley, Author of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie". Material Witness. 7 February 2009. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  6. Clark, Lucy (22 February 2009). "Enjoy the Flavia of Bradley's Pie". Sunday Telegraph. Australia. LexisNexis Academic (subscription required). Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  7. "Review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley". Kirkus Reviews. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (subscription required). 77 (5): 49. March 2009. Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  8. "Author Spotlight: Alan Bradley". randomhouse.com. Random House. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  9. Medley, Mark (14 March 2009). "The Sweetness Found Him: How Alan Bradley Secured a Six-Book Deal and Sold His Mystery Series about a Precocious 11-year-old in 19 Countries". National Post. Canada. LexisNexis Academic (subscription required). Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  10. "2004 Daggers". thecwa.co.uk. The Crime Writers' Association. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  11. "2007 Dagger Awards". thecwa.co.uk. The Crime Writers' Association. 20 March 2011. Archived from the original on 20 March 2011. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  12. "The CWA Debut Dagger". thecwa.co.uk. The Crime Writers' Association. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  13. "How to Enter the Debut Dagger". thecwa.co.uk. The Crime Writers' Association. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  14. "Orion Signs Debut Dagger Winner". Bookseller. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (subscription required) (5292): 13. 3 August 2007. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  15. Thornton, Matthew (16 July 2007). "Deals". Publishers Weekly. 254 (28). Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts (subscription required). p. 12. Retrieved 15 February 2011.
  16. Memmott, Carol (21 May 2009). "Mysteries/Thrillers". USA Today. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (subscription required). Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  17. Coon, Judy (May 2009). "Review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley". Booklist. 105 (17): 35 – via Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (subscription required). Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  18. Leber, Michele (15 April 2009). "Review of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, by Alan Bradley". Library Journal. 134 (7): 89 – via Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (subscription required). Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  19. Haun, Beverly. "Forms and Function." Canadian Literature 203 (Winter 2009): p. 127. Academic OneFile, Gale (subscription required). Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  20. Stasio, Marilyn. "Mourning Paper." The New York Times Book Review (24 May 2009): 22. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (subscription required). Retrieved 9 March 2011.
  21. Todd, Paula. "Too Much Crust, Not Enough Filling?" The Globe and Mail (Canada) (14 February 2009). LexisNexis Academic (subscription required). Retrieved 1 February 2011.
  22. Malice Domestic Archived 2017-01-21 at the Wayback Machine www.malicedomestic.org. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  23. 2010 Alex Award Nominations List www.ala.org. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
  24. Amelia Bloomer Project ameliabloomer.wordpress.com Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  25. Bouchercon World Mystery Convention www.bouchercon.info. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  26. "Arthur Ellis Awards: 2010 Winners". crimewriterscanada.com. Crime Writers of Canada. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  27. "Barry Awards". stopyourekillingme.com. Stop, You're Killing Me!. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  28. "Independent Mystery Booksellers Association". mysterybooksellers.com. 12 April 2010. Archived from the original on 12 April 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  29. "Mystery Readers International". mysteryreaders.org. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  30. "Friends of Mystery". friendsofmystery.org. Retrieved 12 March 2011.
  31. "YALSA Best Books for Young Adults". ala.org. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  • "AlanBradleyauthor.com". alanbradleyauthor.com. Alan Bradley's official website, which includes the Flavia de Luce series.
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