I don't know if these books have been talked about before, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first two, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie and The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag.

Set in England in 1950, Flavia is the enfant terrible of sleepy Bishop's Lacey, eleven years old, ferociously bright, a master chemist whose passion in life used to be plotting the horrible poisoning deaths of her two beastly older sisters, the beautiful Ophelia and the bookish Daphne, but has now become solving murders (although depending on how odious and annoying her sisters are to her, she's perfectly willing to multitask).

I found Flavia's inner monologues humorous and sometimes hilarious, and the ensemble of family and townspeople just pop off the page. I gobbled up both books in one weekend, and I'm looking forward to more. If Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple had ever had a love child, it would have been Flavia.

If you like cozies, I think you'll love this series as much as I do.

Another Flavia DeLuce fan! I've read both books also and completely agree with your review.

Here's my post from the Games and Challenges Board - Spring 2010 Reader's Challenge:

I should just ask you what you're reading and end the suspense, lynn! We seem to have similar tastes.

I just loved these books and have already recommended them to family and friends. The cover caught my eye in the library and the blurb sounded good...so glad I picked them up.

The "Forever Amber" moment made me giggle out loud, and also the part where Flavia was "cleverly" interrogating Dogger about affairs was hilarious, too. I like the way the author portrays his characters, not at all static and one-note. Aunt Felicity, for instance, is such a prudish, interfering pill, but she and Flavia have that wonderful moment when they're off on their little picnic together and they talk about Harriet and "Lissy" is an absolute brick.

If they have these as books-on-tape, I think I'm going to get them for my mom for Mother's Day.

Flavia is probably the most appealing character I've come across in a while. Much luck and continued inspiration to Alan Bradley!

I did give these to my mother and she called me tonight and we had a good laugh over "Kick him in the Casanovas and run like blue blazes!" And then Flavia thinking: "But no one ever tells you where the Casanovas are."

Desert Island Keeper status at AAR:

http://likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=7962

Great review, and I agree, I hope Alan Bradley's fingers are moving quickly!

One thing, though, is that I do sort of see some whiff of romance (I always do!), perhaps for Feely. And maybe for Flavia, ten or so years down the road.

The reviewer really liked the books as she posted prior to the review:

http://www.likesbooks.com/blog/?p=4872#more-4872

I read this post and had to run out and get the first book. I loved it. I can't wait to read the second and am also hoping Bradley writes fast. Thank you Gem for the post. I love finding new to me authors.

Des