Seriously...I see that some of you all liked/loved this one but I am baffled. This is up there with "The Catcher in the Rye" with most loathsome young adult character I have read in like decades. Flavia is dancing towards being a psychopath. I would have brained her for the crap she was doing to her two sisters. And all of them were just the most dysfunctional family ever. I can't even tell you much about the murder. Someone was murdered. Flavia "investigated". Bah. At least I counted it for two separate games. 

So "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie" follows Flavia De Luce. A man is found murdered in her family's garden and her father is soon taken into custody accused of the murder. Flavia who overheard her father fighting with the dead man thinks he did it, but is focused on getting him cleared of murder. Flavia's eleven and I guess could be called precocious. I don't know. I know she bugged the ever living life out of me. 

Look I don't know what to even say except I didn't like this one. Bradley didn't do a good job of developing Flavia beyond her being a terrible ass child. I can't say much about anyone else that is in this since they are merely there for Flavia to do terrible things to. My brothers would have buried me in our yard if I got up to half the stuff that she did.

The writing was unintentionally funny and circled back to Flavia being awful.

 

They’ll charge him with murder,” Ophelia said, “and then he’ll be hanged!”

She burst into tears again and turned away.

For a moment I almost felt sorry for her."

 

“What is it? My symbol, I mean.” “It’s a P,” he said. “Capital P.” “A P?” I asked, surprised. “What does P stand for?” “Ah,” he said, “that’s best left to the imagination.”

 

The flow was awful. Seriously. I had a hard time paying attention while reading this one. And it felt like sometimes that chapters went on forever. Bradley didn't do a good job of ending the chapters on a high or low note. Sometimes the next chapter was just following up with the action in the last scene so I was baffled why he chose to cut things off where he did. 

The book takes place in the 1920s in England. I don't know...it just read off to me the whole time. Maybe the dialogue was too modern and other times something seemed off. I don't know.

The book ended and I breathed a sound of relief. I have no intention of reading the other books in this series. 

Not feeling this one very much. Flavia is kind of annoying. 

Wie, was und wer?

Ach, wie lange musste ich auf einen weiteren Flavia de Luce - Band warten? Lange, viel zu lange nach meinem Geschmack und noch schlimmer, ich muss jetzt wieder ewig warten!!! 

Denn der neue Band ist schwupdiwups schon ausgelesen und eigentlich möchte ich sofort wissen, wie geht es weiter mit meinen Freunden auf Buckshaw!

Aber der Reihe nach...

Ander als viele andere Autoren gelingt es Alan Bradley, dass seine Reihe um die 12-jährige, zugegeben neunmalkluge und nerdige Flavia im ländlichen England der 50er Jahre immer spannender und nicht langweiliger wird. Da können sich andere mal ein paar Scheibchen abschneiden. 

Im neuen Band ist Flavia wieder zurück aus dem "Exil" des kanadischen Internets und erwartet eigentlich ein großes Begrüßungskomitee, aber nix da... keiner scheint sie so recht vermisst zu haben von der de Luce-Sippe, denn Colonel de Luce ist schwer krank und die Sorge um ihn, treibt alle um. Da braucht es schon eine Leiche, um die Spürnase Flavia abzulenken und auf andere Gedanken zu bringen. 

Der Fall war ganz schön verzwickt, aber letztlich passend und es machte Spaß, gemeinsam in Wohnungen herumzuschnüffeln, Aufflüge nach London zu machen oder Leute auszufragen. Flavia hat es echt drauf! 

Das Ende, also das Buchende, ist hingegen nicht so erbaulich und lässt den geneigten Leser nach einer Fortsetzung gieren.

Es gibt 5 von 5 Sternen für eine tolle, unterhaltsame und Chemikalien reiche Lektüre!!!

Flavia de Luce 8 - Mord ist nicht das letzte Wort von Alan Bradley, Seite 330.

Flavia de Luce 8 - Mord ist nicht das letzte Wort von Alan Bradley, Seite 45