The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

As the novel opens we find Flavia De Luce locked inside a closet by her two older sisters, but once Flavia puts her plan for revenge in motion she stumbles upon a mystery which begs to be solved. From the discovery of a dead Jack Snipe with a stamp impaled on his beak to the argument Flavia overhears in her father's room with the man she sees take his last breath in their cucumber patch the next morning, Flavia is on the case.

With the help of her trusty bike Gladys, Flavia must figure out how all of these events are connected in order to prove her father innocent of murder. It is easy to forget that Flavia is only eleven years old as she rides around town conducting her own investigation one step ahead of the inspector on the case.

I'm not sure if it was the British setting, the mystery, or the loveable character of Flavia,who is a self trained chemist and amateur detective, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan on reading the rest of this series to see what other trouble Flavia gets herself into while trying to solve crimes.