library_mama | The Clockwork Three

The Clockwork Three by Matthew J. Kirby Sometime around the turn of the last century, in an east coast town something like Boston, three children meet. Giuseppe is a street busker, sold by his uncle to a cruel padrone who takes his earnings and doesn’t feed him if he doesn’t make enough. Frederick is a clockmaker’s apprentice, rescued from the harsh orphanage factory. Hannah is a maid at the hotel where her father was a stonemason before his stroke. All have desperate hopes – Giuseppe to return to Italy and find his sister and brother, Frederick to make a clockwork automaton and become a full journeyman, and Hannah for her father to get well enough to work so that she no longer has to support the family. There is a mysterious and wealthy fortune-teller, Madame Pomeroy, rumored to travel with a tiger, who employs Hannah when she is almost fired. There is a search for treasure left by a wealthy former resident of the hotel, and just a hint of magic. Soon, the three children realize that only by working together can they solve their problems. There were a few moments where the intended easy meshing of clockwork plot pieces seemed a little contrived, but all in all, this is a lovely and engrossing effort.

Crossposted to http://sapphireone.livejournal.com and http://library-mama.dreamwidth.org .