The Clockwork Girl
ANNA MAZZOLA (ORION, £14.99) Paris 1750 – a place of dark alleys, doorway lurkers and the stench of human filth. Madeleine works in her mother’s brothel and spends her days keeping her head down and caring for her young nephew. But then she is dispatched to the home of a celebrated-butsecretive clockmaker and his convent-educated daughter. Tasked with working as a chambermaid – and keeping her eyes and ears open – she must find out about mysterious experiments the clockmaker is said to be undertaking. But as children start vanishing from the streets, Madeleine begins to fear she’s stumbled into something truly terrible. Conjuring up a world of sin and danger, this intoxicating historical mystery is brilliantly original. ★★★★