Listening to The Voice

If you hang out with writers or writer wannabes for any length of time, you'll hear them talk about Voice.  They mention the word with awe and respect, like the Voice is Gandhi's or Caruso's or God's (a Voice, according to the clergy and Kevin Smith, that would literally Blow. Your. Mind.) and every writer wants one.  A strong narrative voice.  A recognizable voice.  An exciting voice.  You might think that all these adjectives had made the word-nerds squishy-brained but the fact is Voice is often the hook that pulls a reader into a story.  For example:

 Listen my children and you will hear-
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.

Hear those fourteen words again and suddenly you are a kid again, curled up with some pals by a wing chair  because the storyteller in the center has promised you tales of derring-do. Fourteen words and the narrator's in charge.   That, my friends, is Voice.

All of this is build-up for a novel I just finished called The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  My mentor, Javacia Harris Bowser (she of Writeous Babe fame) mentioned it as a topic for research but scanning it for data brought to light a fabulous tale graced by that starriest of gifts, a Great Voice.

Ninety percent of the Voice in this book belongs to Flavia de Luce, an eleven-year old chemist with a passion for poisons.  She lives in the kind of drafty English country house once favored by Dodi Smith and Agatha Christie near a small, English village.  Family and the villagers all interact with Flavia but few of them seem to realize they are sharing space with the female version of young Sherlock Holmes.  (Of course, that's a weapon in our heroine's arsenal and one she won't hesitate to use.)  Flavia is intelligent, acerbic, tenacious, and so emotionally detached that she should give most grown-ups pause. However, what our heroine lacks in sweetness, she makes up for in courage and a sense of fair play that extends to everyone except her own sisters.  One of the delights in "Sweetness" is the undeclared war between the de Luce sisters and it carries the ring of truth.  When you are growing up, no one can upset you faster or more than your own brother or sister, probably because they know you so well.  Flavia is the smartest de Luce daughter but Daphne and Ophelia are bigger and they can put their sister in her place.   Whenever they do, it stimulates Flavia's interest in revenge!

If you liked Agatha Christie novels or I Capture the Castle, if you doted on Flora Poste in Cold Comfort Farm or loved the arch humor in Jane Austen's books, (there's a Voice for you!) try  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie.  You'll fall in love with Flavia de Luce or, more accurately, you'll fall in love with her voice.