Alan Bradley’s debut novel, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, was one of those books that I imagine writers must dream about: a first-time novel that became the literary darling of booksellers and libraries alike, winning the Debut Dagger Award as well as being nominated for several others, and the first in a promising series that shows no sign of losing steam or sales. It also gives hope that it’s never too late to those of us who may aspire to actually write a novel, since Bradley was 70 before his book and its precocious heroine, Flavia de Luce, was introduced to the world.

Set in the 1950s, in a sprawling country house in a quaint little village that seems only to exist in England, Flavia is the youngest daughter of the widower Colonel de Luce, a girl 11 years old and going on 35. She gets no respect from her two older sisters but finds plenty of ways to keep herself occupied in her chemistry experiments, in an impressive home laboratory that rivals anything I encountered in Chemistry 101 class. The most memorable thing I recall from those classes was when the professor dipped a rose in LN2 (a.k.a. liquid nitrogen) and then struck it against the counter, shattering the rose in a million tiny shards. Well, Flavia could probably teach my professor a thing or two, and her particular affinity is for poison. Not that she does anything too sinister with her deadly knowledge, beyond spiking her sister’s lipstick with essence of poison ivy. But when Flavia discovers a body in the cucumber patch one morning and her father appears to be the prime suspect, she is determined to put her knowledge and research skills to work and discover how the stranger really ended up dead in her garden. Setting out on her trusty bicycle, Gladys (what a wonderful name for a bicycle!), Flavia’s investigations shed light on her father’s mysterious past and lead her into some unusual situations. Part mad scientist, part Miss Marple, Flavia’s adventures in this book are only the beginning.

Now, I’d wanted to read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie since word first started getting out about this fabulous new mystery. And who wouldn’t be attracted to the bright lime green cover, the charming title and not least, the character of Flavia? But when I actually finally opened the book and began reading, it didn’t hold my interest. Worse, Flavia was a character but not one that I really believed in. It was all a little too twee for my liking. But to be fair, I’m not really a big fan of cozy mysteries and tend to have the same reaction to them as I did Sweetness whenever I venture out and think, “Well maybe this one will be different. Maybe this time I’ll actually like it.” It’s truly a case of ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ – the problem is the reader, not the book. The vast majority of reviews I’ve read up to this point have been overwhelmingly positive, so take my opinion for the anomaly that it is. So, with that said, perhaps I should just give up on trying to make myself like this genre and stick to what I like.