The Golden Tresses of the Dead (Flavia de Luce, #10)

by Alan Bradley

The spectacular final novel starring Flavia de Luce--"the world's greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth" (The Seattle Times)--from award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Alan Bradley.

Flavia de Luce, the twelve-year-old chemist and amateur detective, is eager to turn professional. She and her father's valet, Dogger, have founded a detective agency, Arthur Dogger & Associates, and unexpectedly cut into their first case during the revelry at her sister Ophelia's wedding reception. After an eventful ceremony with a missing best man and spontaneous ventriloquist act, spirits are high as Feely and her new husband head for the towering and beautifully iced wedding cake. But as Feely slices into the first piece, a scream rings out--the bridal cake contains a severed human finger. Delighted, Flavia wraps the finger in a napkin and whisks it away to her chemical laboratory. By studying the embalmed skin, the indentation of a ring and the slope of the fingernail, she'll not only be able to determine the identity of the victim--but also point a finger at a killer.

• ISBN10: 0385678479
• ISBN13: 9780385678476
• Publish Date: 22 January 2019
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Out of Print: 23 September 2020
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Doubleday Canada
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English

Reviews

[annieb123]

Originally published on my blog: Nonstop Reader.

The Golden Tresses of the Dead is the tenth (!!) book in the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. Released 22nd Jan 2019 by Penguin on their Delacorte imprint, it's 352 delightful pages and available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio formats.

Flavia is a force of nature. For readers who are unfamiliar with the series, she's a precocious, sometimes ghoulish, chemistry obsessed 12 year old (at this point in the series), who uses her prodigious intellect (and her brawny family retainer Dogger) to solve crimes.

The premise could so easily tip over into maudlin or saccharine cutesy. It balances on the knife edge throughout and Flavia (and Dogger) are -so- readable and engaging that any new addition to the series is a cause for jubilation. By the 10th book, a lot of series' quality control seems to go out the window, sadly. This series has maintained a high standard throughout and in my opinion, The Golden Tresses of the Dead has turned out to be one of my favorites.

Since it's the latest book in a fairly large series, I would recommend some familiarity before reading this book. There's a lot of background info and character development which have gone before which won't be understood without picking up at least some of the previous installments. It's not an absolute requirement of course, the author's skillful enough to make each of these books a self contained read, but the experience will undoubtedly be enhanced.

Five stars. This is probably my current favorite mystery series, bar none.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Beth C.]

I wasn't as into this one - there's a lot more Dogger this go-round, which isn't a BAD thing, but it seemed that there was a lot LESS Flavia. It will be interesting to see how their partnership plays out in the next book - though I hope Flavia will be more center again.