by Ellery Lloyd
First published 2025
In 1988, two Cambridge art history students discover evidence that transforms everything known about Juliette Willoughby's death. The runaway heiress and artist supposedly died in an accidental studio fire in Paris fifty years earlier, taking her Self Portrait As Sphinx with her. But the students uncover proof that someone murdered Juliette deliberately. Their discovery exposes dark secrets within the Willoughby aristocratic family and resurrects whispers about an ancient family curse. The investigation connects to a violent killing in modern Dubai, revealing a web of love, madness, and revenge that spans decades. As the students dig deeper, they must decode the mystery that Juliette took to her grave. The sphinx refuses to surrender her riddle easily.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, mystery, crime, 21st-century, art-history
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amateur-sleuth, family-secrets, mystery
Setting: Cambridge, Dubai, Paris
Period: 1988, 1938
336 pages · Paperback · Harper Perennial