After a mysterious man turns up dead in eleven year-old Flavia de Luce's cucumber patch, she takes it upon herself to solve the case. With her masterful plans and vast knowledge of chemistry, Flavia slowly uncovers the mystery--dodging detectives all the way. This book is a perfectly-written murder mystery that will keep you interested until the very last page.
AGE RANGE TEEN+
THEMES
Murder
Mystery
Chemistry
Crime
Family
Sisters
England
OVERALL RATING 9/10
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a very fun book that I really enjoyed reading. For a murder mystery, it wasn't too violent or gory, which I always appreciate, and the way the book is written always had me wondering 'who did it?' The only reason this will not be on my Featured Books List is because there is a pretty racist scene in it. The scene consists of a teenage boy dressing as an old Chinese man, painting his face yellow, putting on an accent, and doing stage magic. At the time the scene is set, this would have been acceptable, but it is not acceptable now and it was not essential to the plot that the boy pretend to be Chinese, so I think it was unnecessary. This may have been an OK addition to the book if Flavia (the protagonist) had thought critically of the teenaged boy's actions, but she didn't seem to mind at all.
PROS
Exciting
Fun
Mysterious
Very well written
CONS
Racist scene explained above
I love this call out so much. Well said.