Book seventeen: The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley.

I've given up recommending books to other people.  It seems most people find the books I like either offensive or boring.  And I'm particularly hesitant to recommend books to my family.  So it was a big risk when I recently sent my parents an audio book with the thought that they might like it, even though there was (cover your ears) a sex scene.

I did it because Major Pettigrew's Last Stand seemed like a book both my mom and dad would like, so I sent them the audio book.  Surprisingly, they loved it.  In fact, my dad has now listened to the book three times.  And, as I was leaving from my last visit to see my parents, my dad pulled me aside, discretely gave me a hundred dollar bill, and asked me to send him other audio books I thought he might like.  That's a lot of pressure since most of the books I read would likely offend my parents.

But I accepted the challenge and immediately went looking for books that I thought my dad would like.  I've considered reading The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie: A Flavia de Luce Mystery by Alad Bradley for quite some time.  And it seemed like a possible book for my dad so I decided to read it.

This book isn't as good as Major Pettigrew's Last Stand but it's still a lot of fun.  Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce is a delightful heroine.  She's smart, witty, and precocious.  She reminds me a lot of my nieces.  Normally, I don't like books written in first person.  But somehow, Flavia is charming telling her own story.

As with most mysteries, I have a hard time with the "reveal" sections of the story; where the detective fills us in on the things we couldn't have possibly known.  But Bradley keeps these moments to a minimum.  Instead, he spends most of his time developing interesting and strange, small-town characters who are delightful, particularly if you come from a small town.

I'm sending this audio book to my dad in the hopes that he'll love the chemistry, the science, and the smarter-than-average girl who might just remind him of his granddaughters.  And I may read Bradley's second novel in the series to see if it might be another recommend for my dad.