Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alan Bradley

11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce, lives in the quiet English village in the 1950s. Flavia is the youngest of 3 girls who live with their widowed father. Their mother died just after Flavia was born. She spends much of time in her laboratory working with chemicals as well as is preoccupied with retaliating against her lofty older sisters. She is sneaking around after hours when she overhears a rude, redheaded stranger arguing with her eccentric father, a philatelic devotee.

Equally adept at quoting 18th-century works, listening at keyholes and picking locks, Flavia learns that her father, Colonel de Luce, may be involved in the suicide of his long-ago schoolmaster and the theft of a priceless stamp. The sudden expiration of the stranger in a cucumber bed brings for the mystery of who the man is and why he died there. She uses her local library and her connections with the other villagers, but when her father is arrested for murder she must prove who did it.

I really wanted to like it but just felt annoyed by how precocious and prickly Flavia is. It wasn't until the final chapters of the book that I even started to like her and enjoy the book. And that was because she got herself kidnapped and started to show she wasn't perfect.

There is a sequel and I may read it down the road but it will be awhile.