A beautifully wrought gothic crime novel of buried pasts and the fairytales that haunt us

A guilt-riddled goldsmith works by the shore. A splintering writer returns to capture the fairy tales of the town where she spent her childhood summers. A body floats on the tide. The second novel by critically-acclaimed Bonnie Burke-Patel.

A Love Reading Star Book and Best Book of the Year Pick

'Melding modern mystery with fairy tale truths, this engrossing gothic crime novel is a thrilling, lyrical triumph' Love Reading.

From Bonnie Burke-Patel, author of I Died at Fallow Hall, shortlisted for the 2025 Betty Trask Award, CWA Gold Dagger, and the Theakstons Old Peculier McDermid Debut Award.

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?