Adam Conlan has made a new life for himself in Morrow-on-Sea. After a wild youth, the goldsmith had settled down, determined to be around for his young son.

But now Ophelia Richards appears at his studio door, asking if he will buy her gold. The writer entices and unsettles him; he sees she is adrift in the same cold pain and loneliness as he is.

At the same time, faces begin appearing at the studio window, an unwelcome gift arrives in the post, gold goes missing.

Then comes death, then comes Detective Inspector William Kent.

Woven through with Morrow’s fairy tales, Dead as Gold is a modern Gothic crime novel veined with love, violence, family, and desire. Humans still use fairy tales to explore their deepest truths. So who is a wolf, and who is a sparrow?

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My Review

I can’t begin to express how much I loved this book. It’s not just the characters, especially Adam, it’s the exquisite writing, the main story and the way in which it’s interspersed with fairy tales that reflect what’s happening. I loved the fairy tales though they are crueller than the real life.

Then there’s the setting – I love anything to do with the seaside, and the way in which the sea becomes a character of its own, with its power and majesty.

While I loved Bonnie’s previous novel I Died At Fallow Hall (I was on the blog tour), it didn’t speak to my heart and soul in the same way as Dead As Gold. Sorry that sounds so pretentious.

Adam Conlan and Ophelia Richards are the two main protagonists, who fate has driven together. First meeting briefly on the beach, Olivia turns up at Adam’s shop and workshop and asks him to buy three items of valuable jewellery given to her by her beautiful mother Marina. Though we don’t actually ‘see’ much of Marina, she is central to Olivia’s story. Adam’s brother Luke is also important, he was a stabilising factor in his and Adam’s troubled childhood, having lost their mother when they were young and been raised by their cold, seemingly uncaring father.

Eight years ago, Adam fathered a child, Felix, on a one-night stand. Though he and the mother never had a relationship, they share the parenting and Adam has now become a responsible father. But then Adam receives a warning in the post, a mysterious face keeps appearing at the window, his shop is broken into, thousands of pounds worth of gold is stolen, and the unthinkable happens. And so the drama begins. A wonderful read, which will no doubt become one of my favourite books of the year.

Many thanks to the author for an advanced paperback proof of #DeadAsGold

About the Author

Born and raised in South Gloucestershire, Bonnie Burke-Patel studied History at Oxford. After working for half a decade in politics and policy, she changed careers and became a preschool teacher, before beginning to write full time. She lives with her husband, son, and needy cat in south east London, and is working on her next crime novel about fairy tales, desire, and the seaside.