The Golden Tresses of the Dead

by Alan Bradley

Part of Flavia de Luce, book 10

First published 2019

Flavia de Luce has turned her passion for chemistry and detection into a proper business. The twelve-year-old partners with Dogger, her father's loyal valet, to launch Arthur Dogger & Associates detective agency. Their first case arrives during her sister Ophelia's wedding reception. The ceremony has already provided drama with a missing best man and an unexpected ventriloquist performance. Now guests gather around the towering wedding cake as Feely prepares to make the ceremonial first cut. Her knife slices through the beautiful icing, and a scream pierces the celebration. Inside the cake sits a severed human finger. While others recoil in horror, Flavia feels only excitement. She wraps the grisly evidence in a napkin and rushes to her chemical laboratory. The embalmed skin, ring indentation, and fingernail shape will reveal the victim's identity. More importantly, these clues will lead her straight to a murderer.

Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, crime, detective, cozy-mystery, amateur-sleuth

Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking, whimsical

Tropes: amateur-sleuth, found-family

Period: 20th-century

327 pages · Hardcover · Delacorte Press

More by Alan Bradley

• A Study in Sherlock
• Speaking from Among the Bones
• The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches
• As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust
• Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew'd
• The Grave's a Fine and Private Place
• The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
• The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag

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