by Alan Bradley
To David Whiteside, of the Bukowski Agency, for his yeoman work in bringing order to the necessary mountains of paperwork and red tape.
To my dear friends Dr. John and Janet Harland, who were there at every step along the way with many useful and often brilliant suggestions. Without their enthusiasm, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie would have been a lesser book and much less fun to write.
All of these kind people have given me their best advice; if any mistakes have crept in, they are mine alone.
And finally, with love and eternal thanks to my wife, Shirley, who urged me—no, insisted that I allow Flavia and the de Luce family to emerge from the bundle of notes in which they had been languishing for far too long.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALAN BRADLEY was born in Toronto and grew up in Cobourg, Ontario. Prior to taking early retirement to write in 1994, he was director of television engineering at the University of Saskatchewan media center for twenty-five years. His versatility has earned him awards for his children's books, radio broadcasts of his short stories, and national print for his journalism. He also co-authored Ms. Holmes of Baker Street, to great acclaim and much controversy, followed by a poignant memoir, The Shoebox Bible. In 2007, Bradley won the Debut Dagger Award of the Crimewriter's Association for The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, the first book in a new series featuring the brilliant young British sleuth Flavia de Luce. Alan Bradley lives in Kelowna, British Columbia, with his wife and two calculating cats. He is at work on the second Flavia de Luce novel.
THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE
A Delacorte Press Book / May 2009
Published by Bantam Dell
A Division of Random House, Inc.
New York, New York
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents
either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events,
or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2009 by Alan Bradley
Delacorte Press is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc.,
and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bradley, C. Alan, 1938–
The sweetness at the bottom of the pie / Alan Bradley.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-440-33846-8
1. Detectives—England—Fiction. 2. Motherless families—Fiction.
3. Sisters—Fiction. 4. England—Fiction. I. Title.
PR9199.4.B7324S94 2009
813′.6—dc22
2008041787
www.bantamdell.com