Bradley, Alan. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Delacorte, 2009. ISBN 978-0385342308 pp. $

****

When a man turns up dead in the garden, an aspiring child chemist tries to beat local law enforcement to the punch by conducting her own murder investigators. Eleven-year-old Flavia and her sister have an ongoing competition to off one another that is very Spy vs. Spy. This is a funny, fast paced, macabre mystery set across the pond, in the 1950s. Highly readable even for someone (like me!) who doesn’t particularly care for mysteries.