A Review By Frances Smith

We all know about the London of Dickens, with child poverty, the workhouse and no safety net for the starving poor.  There are also more recent books about child poverty in India and in South America, but I hadn’t realised that the problem was just as bad in 1870s New York as it was in Dickens’ London. This is a story set against this background of children who were kidnapped in Italy and taken across to New York to beg on the streets for their “Padrones” who were more or less untouchable by law.  Unable to speak English, the children played, sang or just begged on street corners and all the money they made was given to these Fagin-like figures.  But where Fagin actually cared for his children, these Padrones just about kept the children from starving, but gave them very little beyond that.

 In this story, Giuseppe is such a child, a gifted musician who finds a wonderful violin in a shipwreck and tries to keep its existence a secret from his Padrone.  He is trying to earn enough money to buy his passage back to his family in Italy.  He comes across Hannah, who works at The Gilbert Hotel where the housekeeper is the unsmiling Miss Wool.  Hannah is the only member of her family able to work and disaster strikes when Miss Wool dismisses her from her position at the Hotel.

 The third of the “Clockwork Three” of the title is another boy, Frederick, who is apprenticed to a kindly clockmaker.   Together the three children set out on adventure, each holding their own secret and not quite trusting the other two.

 This rather dark fantasy novel is definitely a page-turner which I can certainly recommend.  It was inspired by the true story of a boy called Joseph who in 1873 managed to escape.  He was rescued by a kind old lady who lived in Central Park and was eventually able to expose the corruption and greed of the Padrones to the authorities and the law was changed. I am usually wary of American novels, but this one reads completely fluently with no strange Americanisms to spoil the flow of the story.  The characters are rounded, often horrible or mysterious, and apart from a little magic, completely believable.  Suitable for slightly older readers aged 10+.

To be published October, can be ordered in advance.