Thursday, November 16, 2023

Night Owls - November 13, 2023

The Night Owls book club met in November to discuss The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. It received 3.3 out of 5 stars. 

It is the summer of 1950 and at the once grand mansion of Buckshaw, a young Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison, is intrigued by a series of inexplicable events. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, and a postage stamp is bizarrely pinned to its beak. Then, hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. 

For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life." 

Though the group thought the plot was slow at times, and overall stamps are pretty boring, everyone found Flavia to be a delightful protagonist. Witty and smart, her dialogue and interactions with the other characters helped compensate for the slow progression of the mystery. 
 

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