Book Description

The Miniaturist meets Fingersmith: darkly delicious historical fiction set in C18th France, where children are disappearing from the streets, clockwork creations can imitate life itself, and three extraordinary women are battling for their freedom…

About the Author

Anna Mazzola is an award-winning and critically acclaimed novelist. Her debut novel, THE UNSEEING, won an Edgar Award in the US and was nominated for the Historical Writers’ Association’s Debut Crown in the UK. Her second novel, The Story Keeper, was longlisted for the Highland Book Prize.

Our Review

The Clockwork Girl is based on the story of The Vanishing Children of Paris in 1750, which is said to involve King Louis XV.

This story is such a blast of realism as we walk the filthy streets of the Paris slums in 1750.

Madeleine, our luckless heroine, survives by using her wits to spy on her mother’s brothel clients.

A tightrope life that could change in a heartbeat.

She is offered a job to spy on the local clockmaker, and if she does it well, it could mean a chance to breathe clean air for a change.

She finds herself in another very dangerous world where nothing is as it seems.

The clockmaker is rumoured to make weird moving creatures, brilliantly made but terrifying to watch.

Madeleine’s task is to find out how he does this and what else he is up to.

Parts of this story literally chilled my blood, and I will remember the ending for a very long time…