The Golden Tresses of the Dead: A Flavia de Luce Novel

I own every Flavia de Luce mystery written by Alan Bradley. It is one of the few mystery series I felt I needed to collect as I mostly read ebooks from my Library. While I have loved all the stories to date and hope to see the series one day in Movie form, I have to take exception to the horrible quality of the current edition. I have purchased this title and received a replacement (2 copies) and both are going back! The first copy was littered with faintly printed pages (>20). The second was slightly better, but again had numerous pages that are printed faintly, some almost to the point of being extremely difficult to read. I am collecting these books for my kids and their kids and the quality of the production is so poor that I felt compelled to write this review as Amazon doesn\’t really act on the feedback when you send back items. I would like to see if others are having the same issue. I will update my review when Delacorte Press addresses these production issues. Alan Bradley and Flavia deserve better (as do Mrs. M, Dogger, Ophelia and Daphne)! What would Antigone say?

This is a brand new book. Page 40 was completely blackened out and the right hand side of the last ten pages was faded so much it was hardly readable. Now I know why printed material is dying out. I am returning this, hopefully for a good copy. This series from this author is wonderful.

really liked this series up until the book prior to this one (totally blocked the title!). I hated Flavia\’s father\’s death and really didn\’t see the point. I thought I\’d give the series one more try, this book while better than the previous book was only so-so. A few of the characters were moved along in their lives (again with very little point) and the central \”mystery\” was preposterous. This is the last book for me in this series. My reading time is too valuable and this wasn\’t worth it.

Love the Language & brilliant ideas but the plot seemed forced *spoilers* further down the review. Please note that like other reviewers who purchased this book from Amazon, my copy had quite a few pages that were barely legible . I have read & own all the Flavia books & some are better than others. This one, however, felt embarrassingly below par . The Draw of this series is Flavia\’s quirkiness, sharp intellect & the way she delights in the macabre.I acknowledge loudly that Bradley is a masterful wordsmith, yet this latest offering had me wondering if the bar of my expectations was set unfairly high. The short answer to my rating is : the plot felt like a jigsaw puzzle where the pieces were forced unnaturally together. Yes, it\’s a whole picture in the end, but the continuity is off kilter. The premise of the story is fascinating, but the time frame does not work because it requires a social level of gullibility that necessitates being set 20-30 years prior. *spoilers** I also question the plausibility of a snake oil salesman & associates going to the trouble of using legitimate ingredients. Lastly, the incomprehensible, but key action : a priest sees me conversing with someone & I fear he will ask me to turn out my pockets (? really, by a priest ?) ,So I hide a item with the intention of retrieving it later. The hiding place is not only contrived but SO stupid that no one in the history of the world would ever have done it.Oh, Mr Bradley; you put the cat in the teapot AT tea time ! How could you !? Simply having a character blindly toss an item in a general direction would have been undeniably better. I must also admit that another plot point left me bereft of understanding. The answer as to why a women is killed is incongruously presented . By the time the reveals came, my annoyance level had risen to the point where I simply did not care. Having said all that about the plot I\’m sorry to relay that there were other disappointments that were rather outside of the plot. Flavia is now 14. She acts & emotes pretty much as she did in the books from the beginning of the series (when she was 11 & 12 years old). Somehow she has managed to stay childish,both emotionally & socially. Example: her hurtling around on her bicycle Gladys & Her complete lack of bodily awareness. Shouldn\’t she be confronting puberty by now ? Shouldn\’t that be coloring her outlook ?. Another problem with this story is the lack of adult oversight of 3 minors. Flavia\’s older sister is gone, the aunt is nowhere around & the housekeeper goes home in the evening. There is only Dogger, who, though a much beloved character, isn\’t really a right sort to be overseeing the girls…especially when you remember that his mental health can be fragile.Yes I will keep this book on my book shelf along with it\’s series brethren. Yes, I will read any further book in this series because by that time I will have forgiven Mr Bradley for these transgressions…but really, I would not be able to do so if Mr. Bradley didn\’t serve up an incredible word feast every time he invites us to his story table 😛 !

I loved the story, cannot go wrong with Flavia! The poor quality of this book is shocking. Many of the pages in one section are PASTED OVER with new text, and within that section, the pages not pasted over are so pale they can hardly be read. I am not sure who should make this right, Amazon or the publisher. Someone needs to!

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