The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

Flavia de Luce is an 11-year-old girl growing up in the country village of Bishop's Lacey in 1950's England. He mother is deceased, her father is distant, and her two older sisters torture her - the book begins with her tied up and locked in a closet.

One morning she finds a dying man (who turns out to be an old acquaintance of her father's) in the cucumber patch and when her father is arrested her snooping begins in earnest. She uses her skills as an aspiring chemist, her resourcefulness, and her Sherlock Holmes-like talent for deducing to get to the bottom of the mystery.

Flavia is our narrator in this book, and although it's in a child's voice, it is definitely not a child's book. Its a gentle mystery because of the age of the narrator and while it's intense at times, there is no real violence. The child's point of view doesn't always ring true and sometimes it seems like an older voice. And even though she's playing chemist and detective, she's a child first - as evidenced by the poison ivy in the lipstick prank she pulls on her sister. She's overburdened with spunk and you can't help but root for her and her adventures on Gladys (her bicycle.)

The family dynamic in this book is odd and completely dysfunctional, but it seems to work for them. Flavia's mother was a bit of an adventurer and was killed in a mountain climbing accident. Her father, partly from his grief, is a reclusive, eccentric who spends most of his time with his stamp collection. Her sisters Ophelia 'Feely' and Daphne 'Daffy' spend their time primping, reading, and playing piano. The girls are left to themselves a lot - which gives Flavia the freedom to investigate. The sibling rivalry is hilarious.

Skinny Dip - Carl Hiaasen

This book has the most amazing beginning. Joey Perrone is tossed of a cruise ship by her husband on their anniversary cruise. On the way down she's thinking of what a jerk he is. She is kept alive by her experience on her college swim team, a wayward bale of Jamacan pot and finally by Mick Stranahan who pulls her from the water.

Joey is wealthy - she and her brother were left a large inheritance when her parents died in a plane crash that was caused by a performing bear. Honest, I couldn't make this up.

She's at a loss as to why her husband would want to kill her - there was a prenup and an ironclad will. Anger takes over and she doesn't call the cops but decides to get even -- first by haunting him a bit, driving him a little crazy, and eventually blackmail. Which, I have to say is a plotline that truly tickles the funny bone.

Mick is an ex cop, has 6 ex-wives, one doberman and lives on an isolated island. He helps Joey get back at her husband.

Her husband Chaz is a marine biologist who hates the outdoors. He is lazy, greedy, self-centered,corrupt and arrogant. He's is a hedonist with no apparent ethics and no redeeming qualities. Because of his reactions to the 'haunting', he is assigned a body guard by a shady agri-businessman businessman named Red Hammernut who has paid Chaz to falsify environmental records. His body guard is a bear-like man who is made more ornery by a bullet lodged in his butt crack.

Detective Karl Rolvagg knows Chaz isn't telling the truth, but without evidence he is at a loss. Oh, and he has pet pythons.

It's obvious that Hiaasen loves the ocean, Florida, and the everglades. He takes every opportunity to stump for their preservation - but it doesn't detract from the story.

While it's definitely not a whodunit - you know that information on page one - the only real mystery is why. It's also a wonderful story about a cast of several charming and likeable characters and a few complete idiots - all running amok.