The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie

Flavia de Luce is part of a tradition of precocious young female detectives. Like other characters in this genre, Flavia is plucky, intelligent, and resourceful. Since she is often left to her own devices, Flavia is also much more self-reliant than most 11-year-olds. With limited tools at her disposal, Flavia methodically and systematically works through the clues she has gathered and synthesizes them into theories. By the end of the story, Flavia has solved not one but two murder mysteries, absolving her father of guilt in both.

Flavia’s precocity is a running theme throughout the book. She can grasp complicated chemical procedures and has extensive knowledge of a wide array of principles in chemistry that rivals the ability of much older students. She has a quick wit and an excellent vocabulary, and can banter with adults on their own level. It is easy to forget Flavia’s young age, though her emotional immaturity and lack of real-life experience are displayed in numerous instances.

Flavia is easily irritated and angered when adults dismiss her out of hand for her age and gender. She works hard to prove her abilities and overcompensates at times. Inspector Hewitt is a good example of a character who comes to understand Flavia’s intellectual talents. When he first meets Flavia, Inspector Hewitt asks her to arrange for tea to be brought out for the investigators and tells her to stay in the house, out of the way. By the end of the story, Inspector Hewitt relies on Flavia’s investigative work to flesh out his own, and he is astonished at how she found such convincing evidence. He solemnly shakes her hand before leaving, one detective to another.

The story’s two murder mysteries link the past to the present and demonstrate how events in the past affect those in the present. Laurence never admitted to anyone that he knew about Horace Bonepenny’s theft of the TL stamp, leaving him to feel immense guilt over Mr. Twining’s apparent suicide, which was assumed to have resulted from the loss of the stamp. This leaves Laurence open to attempted blackmail by Bonepenny, who returns to his life like a ghost from his past. Dogger’s wartime experiences make Laurence suspect that Dogger killed Bonepenny, so Laurence confesses to the murder out of gratitude for how Dogger saved his life. The word vale shows the link between the past and present murders as well, as Flavia deduces that Mr. Twining had not been the one to shout the word from the rooftop, and that Bonepenny’s use of the word was his way of confessing.

The theft of the TL stamp in the past and that of the AA stamp in the present cements Bonepenny’s plot to extort money from Laurence, as well as Pemberton/Stanley’s decision to murder Bonepenny and take the stamps for himself. By burning his TL stamp, Dr. Kissing removes the metaphorical connection that exists between the two stamps and returns the TL stamp to its supposed fate in the past. Flavia’s return of the AA stamp to its rightful owner completes the circle, and the present is as it should be.

Flavia’s family comes from a long and illustrious aristocratic tradition. There are many references to famous de Luces of the past. They appear to be the only aristocratic family in the immediate area, so they solely occupy their position. Their supposed wealth allows them to worship at the Anglican church in Bishop’s Lacey, despite their long history of being Roman Catholics. Thus their social class allows them to transcend the strictures of religion.

At the Thirteen Drakes, Flavia finds that Mary Stoker immediately dislikes her simply because of her family. Mary assumes that Flavia looks down on her because she is of a lower class. It is only after Flavia demonstrates that she has the same dark sense of humor that Mary possesses, and she is not afraid to express it, that Mary warms to Flavia. Assumptions based on social class are typical for the time and setting of the story.

Despite their closeness, Dogger refers to Flavia as “Miss Flavia” and to her father as “the Colonel.” Dogger removes his cap when in Flavia’s presence and speaks to her deferentially, though he is her only true friend.

Miss Mountjoy believes that high social class standing kept Laurence and the other boys from being punished for her uncle’s death. Miss Mountjoy remarks that during the inquest that followed Mr. Twining’s death, the de Luce name granted Laurence reverence during his testimony and influenced the court.

An interesting example of how Harriet thwarted social class conventions is Mrs. Mullet’s story of how Harriet told her to bake the occasional custard pie, to reminder the de Luces of their snobbishness. Mrs. Mullet could then take the pie home to her husband, as a way for the family to apologize for their pretension. Harriet seems to have routinely behaved in ways that broke the stereotype of an aristocratic young woman, and those traits and behaviors are seen in Flavia throughout the story.