Blog Tour: Dead as Gold – Bonnie Burke-Patel

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?

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 dog in south east London.

My thoughts: The use and retelling of fairy tales and folklore is actually my academic catnip (and the focus of my current PhD research) but I won’t bore you with theory, this is a really good book.

Interwoven with the story of goldsmith Adam and writer Ophelia, both very interesting names to choose, and the crimes that bring DI Kent into their lives, is a fairy tale featuring gold, chosen family, fathers and a child with a silver tongue and a heart of gold, deep in the forest.

Adam’s small shop is robbed and Ophelia is the first on the scene, there’s blood but no body, that comes later, pulled from the sea. Adam is alarmed, more about the safety of his son in the flat above the shop than the actual robbery. His slow-burn relationship with Ophelia feels almost secondary to the other ones he has – with his agent, his brother, his son, his son’s mother.

The police interview all of the adults around him, unravelling some other concerns that Adam isn’t entirely aware of, circling him, is this an insurance job?

The writing is lush and the small coastal town of Morrow feels ripe with its own stories, both dark and light. Ophelia visited as a child and it has drawn her back, despite the events of her last visit. Her Own familial relationships are strained, she’s not close to her parents and her first meeting with Adam was to sell him gold jewellery they gave her, devoid of the sentiment they imagine she will feel for it (being previously owned by her mother and grandmother).

A fascinating, dark and enjoyable book about stories, family and the ripples small events cause in our lives.

*I was kindly gifted a copy of this book in exchange for taking part in this blog tour, but all opinions remain my own.