The story starts out to be a thriller, with Scotland Yard being blown up by Irish radicals; but that story line is lost in the story of a Japanese Watchmaker who uses his 'special powers' to manipulate a young man (who he waited 10 yrs to grow up). The young man leaves his wife on their wedding night and becomes the watchmakers lover. The wife had repeatedly warned him that the watchmaker was manipulating him. Then she is made to look like a crazy woman. There are subtle messages here (or maybe not so subtle).
It's an usually distinctive and finely crafted timepiece that suddenly appears to Thaniel, a local clerk, who assumes a friend left it for him. Â When the watch alerts him to a bomb about to go off it saves his life. Â Is the watch a creation of an Irish terrorist group? Â Unlikely. The maker is Keita Mori, a Japanese clockmaker who makes moving mechanicals such as birds, an octopus and more. Â Mori is a genius with creations, kind and calm and soon rents a room to Thaniel. The two become friends.Â
The cast grows with the plot. Meet Grace Carrow, an Oxford-trained physicist with a mathematical soul who is intent on unraveling the mechanics of the watch, an orphan girl named Six, Whitehall civil servants, a Japanese dandy, and others.
Easy to read, the story flows seamlessly from one incident to another and one character to another.  Who is the bomber?  I couldn't guess until the author's reveal. All in all, I quite enjoyed this entertaining book.
The cast grows with the plot. Meet Grace Carrow, an Oxford-trained physicist with a mathematical soul who is intent on unraveling the mechanics of the watch, an orphan girl named Six, Whitehall civil servants, a Japanese dandy, and others.
Easy to read, the story flows seamlessly from one incident to another and one character to another.  Who is the bomber?  I couldn't guess until the author's reveal. All in all, I quite enjoyed this entertaining book.
