The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: Alan Bradley

In England in 1950, 11-year-old Flavia de Luce is developing a rather disturbing interest in poisons. Though perhaps this is not so surprising; for centuries, the de Luces have turned out their fair share of eccentrics, including at least one other relative with a serious interest in poison. Bullied and tormented by her two elder sisters, Flavia’s miserable existence is rendered downright fascinating when she overhears a mysterious man attempting to blackmail her father over a murder they supposedly committed thirty years before. Only hours later, she finds this same man lying in the cucumber patch – and watches him die of poison before her very eyes! Is her father a murderer? Flavia begins to suspect it might be so, but nonetheless sets out on an adventure to prove her father’s innocence, uncovering a host of unexpected information about him along the way. Told in the first person by Flavia, this is an amusing tale of childhood precocity wreaking havoc upon the adult world.