The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

By: Alan Bradley

Published by National Geographic Books, 2010-01-19

<b>WINNER OF THE AGATHA • ARTHUR ELLIS • DILYS • DEBUT DAGGER AWARDS <br><br> “Wonderfully entertaining . . . sure to be one of the most loved mysteries of the year . . . [Flavia is] a delightful, intrepid, acid-tongued new heroine.”<i>—Chicago Sun-Times</i><br></b><br>It is the summer of 1950–and at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events: A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath.<br><br>For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”<br><br> BONUS: This edition contains a <i>The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie</i> discussion guide and an excerpt from Alan Bradley's <i>The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.</i>