From the bestselling author of Things in Jars and The Night Ship comes a spellbinding gothic novel in which lifelike machines walk, old bones lie buried beneath the marsh grass, and a young woman born crackling with power confronts the terrible truth of her origins.

A secret cannot stay locked away forever…

Bodkin Bell, orphan, pickpocket and survivor, doesn’t know where she came from, but she knows she’s different. Gaslights flare as she walks past. Cutlery spins. Shocks fly from her fingertips.

For years, she was ‘Little Spark’, the star of an electrifying sideshow—until the act went too far and she ended up in a London gaol.

Now she’s been offered a way out. A chance to serve at Point Mote, a vast, desolate house marooned on the misty Kent marshes. There, she will assist a reclusive family of cunning inventors in the creation of automata: miraculous, lifelike machines for which gentlemen collectors will pay handsomely.

But this house of wonders hides mysteries too. As Bodkin starts to question why she is really there, she unearths secrets that have been buried bone-deep for years—and a truth beyond all imagining. One that was never meant to be found.

My Review

Another excellent offer from one of my favourite authors. This one is different, as like in The Night Ship there are no ghosts or spirits, in fact not even a tiny bit of magical realism. I miss the supernatural element, especially the dead boxer and the saints, but especially I miss the Irish narrators, though this one is very goood.

Eight-year-old Bodkin Bell is electric, literally. Sparks fly from her fingers, which makes an entertaining side show act with her mentor Cornelius Bell. They tour the country together for years. But when it goes horribly wrong, she ends up in jail and Cornelius disappears.

Then she is offered a deal she can’t refuse. She can see out her sentence at the scary Point Mote, a desolate house on the Kent marshes. She would be the assistant to the owner’s nephew, in the creation of his automata. Or stay and and rot in prison. Accept or her sentence just keeps going up.

This is so clever and well-plotted, and we root for Bodkin even though she is not perfect. She was a pickpocket after all. But needs must. The story takes a lot of twists and turns and eventually we end up in a place we could never have imagined. Now I just need to wait for the next book from Jess Kidd, be it another Victorian mystery or book three in the Nora Breen Investigates series.

About the Author

Jess Kidd was brought up in London as part of a large family from county Mayo and has been praised for her unique fictional voice. Her debut, Himself, was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in 2016. She won the Costa Short Story Award the same year. Her second novel, The Hoarder, published as Mr. Flood’s Last Resort in the U.S. and Canada was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year 2019. Both books were BBC Radio 2 Book Club Picks. Her latest book, the Victorian detective tale Things in Jars, has been released to critical acclaim. Jess’s work has been described as ‘Gabriel García Márquez meets The Pogues.’