The Clockwork Girl
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...
Paris, 1750.
In the midst of an icy winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, chambermaid Madeleine Chastel arrives at the home of the city's celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter.
Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose: to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.
For as children quietly vanish from the Parisian streets, rumours are swirling that the clockmaker's intricate mechanical creations, bejewelled birds and silver spiders, are more than they seem.
And soon Madeleine fears that she has stumbled upon an even greater conspiracy. One which might reach to the very heart of Versailles...
A intoxicating story of obsession, illusion and the price of freedom.
Review
It's rarely I come across a book that astounds me. The Clockwork Girl byAnna Mazzola is one such book. Engrossing plot, vivid characters, attention to historical detail, and above all the beauty of its prose. It is breathtakingly good ― Abir Mukherjee
This book has everything I love. A deliciously dark historical novel of thrilling originality. Immensely clever and entertaining, this is a dazzling gothic novel where science, sin and subterfuge are as intricately rendered as the workings of a clock ― Essie Fox
Evocative, chilling, compelling. Anna Mazzola brings 18th Century Paris vividly to life in all its stinking, disease-ridden brutality. Tremendous ― Rachel Rhys/Tammy Cohen
The Clockwork Girl instantly draws you in, immersing the reader in a Paris of filth and greed, money and sin. Madeleine is a clever, captivating guide to this world, her story dark and bewitching. I loved it
Rarely have I been so utterly swept away by the opening pages of a novel as I was with The Clockwork Girl by Anna Mazzola - this book hooked me in and didn't let go. 1750 Paris was exquisitely wrought, from the freezing and fetid underbelly of the back streets and brothels to the glittering decadence of Versailles. This intricate and twisting story kept me guessing until the end. An absolute masterpiece! ― Jennifer Saint
Unbelievably immersive - from the first page you are plunged into 18th century Paris and you won't want to leave. It is a gripping, gothic tale... three unforgettable women caught in a web of intrigue and murders. You really won't want to miss this. ― Elodie Harper
Deliciously creepy, alive with the rustling silks, rotten smells and lethal egos of a divided Paris. Loved it ― Sarah Hilary
'Anna Mazzola's new novel is a macabre tale of social upheaval and aristocratic skullduggery set against a beautifully evoked 1750s Paris. Mazzola immerses us in the political intrigues of the period, weaving a dark tale of vanished children, an obsessive genius, and courtly machinations. Told through the voices of three very differing women this is another accomplished slice of historical noir from a sure-footed exponent of the genre ― Vaseem Khan
A superb historical novel set in a brilliantly evoked 18th century Paris, The Clockwork Girl will delight and enthral and leave you wanting more ― William Ryan
About the Author
Anna Mazzola is an award-winning and critically acclaimed novelist. Her debut novel, The Unseeing, won an Edgar Allen Poe Award, and her third novel, The Clockwork Girl, was a Sunday Times historical fiction pick for 2022.
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