Paris, 1750
Children are disappearing from the streets of Paris without a trace, causing unrest and fear amongst the populace. Madeleine Chastel is sent to the home of celebrated clockmaker to become a maid to his daughter, Veronique. Whilst there, she is to spy on the family and to determine if there is any truth to the rumours about the clockmaker's strange experiments and creations. Her investigations take her into Versailles and into the court of King Louis himself...

I absolutely loved this book! The characters all had depth and I felt invested in their journeys: from the eccentric clockmaker himself, to the science - obsessed King. They each had a role to play and worked together seamlessly. The setting is a perfect backdrop: the dark streets of Paris with abject poverty and despair juxtaposed with the wealth and luxury of Versailles itself.

The narrative is told from 3 perspectives: Madeleine, Veronique and Jeanne (the King's mistress). This allowed you to see how the story unfolded from different viewpoints, but also from different classes. Each character, as well as having their own opportunity to narrate, gives the reader an insight into the class system they come from, highlighting the disparity between the poverty stricken and the insanely wealthy.

My favourite scenes were those involving Veronique and her father, the clockmaker. The eccentricity of it all was so interesting to read about and there were some scenes that genuinely made my hair stand on end - so gothic and macabre.

This book is truly so so good - if you are fans of historical fiction, this one is for you!

Thank you to Netgalley, Orion Books and Anna Mazzola for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

3.8 Stars

One Liner: Dark, disturbing, and sinister.

Paris, 1750: The winter is brutal, but people are worse. Madeline’s life isn’t any better, but she knows things could be worse. When she gets a chance to make things better, Madeline agrees to put her life at risk. She needs to find out what goes on in the clockmaker’s house and report it to those who hired her for the job. It’s her only chance at freedom, no matter how much the house and the clockmaker scare her.
Dr. Reinhart is a master scientist and wonderful clockmaker. His creations are life-like and show signs of being much more than automata. The bejeweled rabbits and birds might be mesmerizing, but how could the man create these pieces with utter perfection? What is his secret?
Veronique is Dr. Reinhart’s seventeen-year-old daughter. She just came back home after years at the convent. Veronique wants to prove her worth and how she is capable of being trained as her father’s assistant and successor. Reinhart trains her, but Veronique knows that her future isn’t certain until he is satisfied with her worth.
Jeanne, aka Madame de Pompadour, is King Louis’s mistress, one among the many, but with enough control and network to maybe keep her place. However, things get sinister as her position and life are at risk. And what about the larger conspiracy and the King’s love for ‘certain things’?
The world outside seems to be in turmoil. Little kids go missing from the streets. Madeline realizes that she might have uncovered the secret. Will she make it through the day when the dark secrets lead her to the heart of Versailles?

What I Like:
• The story comes from three third-person POVs- Madeline, Veronique, and Jeanne. They are three different women from different backgrounds and with different approaches to life. This added to the narration and kept things interesting even when the pacing was slow.
• The Paris in the book is not glitzy or glamorous. It is dirty, sick, smelly, and simmering a rebellion. The mood of the public (and the response of the royalty) was well established throughout.
• The story combines two major incidents from the period- the automata and the vanishing children. The blending is seamless and sensible. The final reveal doesn’t surprise me because it’s a logical progression.
• The ending is not neatly tied up in a bow. Yes, it is hopeful and positive (that’s why the book has 4 stars from me), yet certain crucial elements were realistic and in line with history.
• There’s no gore or graphical description of brutality, assault, and death. Still, it is present throughout the book.
• The scenes with Dr. Reinhart working on the clocks and creations are cool. I enjoyed reading those.

What Didn’t Work for Me:
• The first half is slow. While some of it was necessary to establish the setting, a few incidents were unnecessarily dragged. Some of the reveals were easy to guess. Leaving them until the end tilted the balance.
• A majority of the action takes place in the last 15% of the book. There’s too much information at once, that too towards the end.
• The story is dark throughout. There isn’t any respite until the end. This is an advantage and a disadvantage. People looking for lighter moments will be disappointed. There were times I wanted something hopeful to keep me going.

To sum up, The Clockwork Girl is a dark and disturbing read set in the dirty and desolate Paris of 1750.
Thank you, NetGalley and Orion Publishing, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.

*****
P.S: I love the cover!

A new gothic masterpiece from the wonderful Anna Mazzola.

Set in turbulent 18th century Paris, amongst the splendour or Versailles and the squalor of the streets, children are vanishing.

Following Madeleine on a chilling, stomach churning series of events as she clutches her new found chance of freedom.

Madeline is tasked with spying on Dr Reinhart, the infamous clockmaker, whose mesmerising designs are famed across Paris.

Raise in a convent but recently returned, we are introduced to the strong-willed Veronique, the daughter of Reinhart, currently training under his wing as his apprentice. Veronique must fight to show she is worthy or risk being returned to the convent or married off to a chosen suitor. A strikingly fierce and colourful character in the eeriness surrounding her.

Rumours are swirling about the missing children does the seeming impossible magic of Reinhart’s automata have some dark solution? Who is snatching these children from the streets of Paris? Can Madeline discover who is behind the disappearances before her time runs out.

Anna Mazzola has spun a wonderful gothic web of horror, mystery, crime and intrigue but at the centre of the web are her expertly crafted characters, strong women from different backgrounds but equally willing to give all they have got to survive and thrive.

Anna Mazzola writes a beautifully written, breathtaking piece of gothic 18th century historical fiction set in Louis XV stink ridden Paris and the Royal Court in Versailles. This is a chilling and atmospheric novel inspired by the 1750 scandal of the vanishing children, with real life historical figures, drawing on the King's actual obsession with death and interest in automata. It revolves around 3 strong and independent women from different social strata, the desperately impoverished and facially scarred Madeleine, working in a brothel, the Academie of Vice run by her cold, cruel and scheming mother, she wants to help her young hungry and unwell nephew, Emile, and willing to do whatever it takes to rebuild a better life free from her mother.

Part of the bourgeousie, the beautiful, unworldly 17 year old Veronique has been raised in a convent she has no desire to return to, where she lost her only friend, Clementine, and is now back home, working as an apprentice to her father, Dr Maximilian Reinhart, longing to become close to him, a genius when it comes to automata with his bird and rabbit creations that appear so alive. The ambitious Jeanne, from humble origins, now belong to the world of great riches, she is Madame Pompadour, Louis's mistress, trained to be a courtesan, adept in the arts of conversation, wit, flattery, entertainment, and manipulation, resented for her influence over the king by so many others, and willing to do whatever it takes to retain her position. Madeleine agrees to take on the dangerous position of becoming a police mouche for money, a spy in Dr Reinhart's home, becoming close to Veronique, and other members of the household, the enslaved Joseph, the valet, and cook, Edme.

However, the house makes her feels uncomfortable, as if there is a presence constantly watching her, the automata leave her feeling deeply unsettled, and she misses not being there for Emile. Matters take an increasingly sinister turn as many children disappear, at first among the poor and homeless whom no-one would miss but then it's the children of tradespeople. A tide of rage and fury begins to build amongst the population, with rumours of the corrupt police facilitating the taking of the children for the nefarious purposes of the aristocrats and a 'leprous prince'. A seed of suspicion begins to grow in Madeleine, a nightmare mystery that she is determined to get to the bottom of, no matter what, as the entire household moves to the royal court when Reinhart becomes the Royal Clockmaker, taking on a secretive Royal project.

Mazzola paints a cold, disturbing and eerie picture of Paris in this time period, the extreme class divisions, the Royal war on vagrancy where it's a crime to be poor and destitute, cheap and disposable, and completely powerless. Women are subject to the power of men, their whims and abuse, irrespective of their class, as we see with the portrayal of the three women. Madeleine, Veronique and Jeanne appear to have so little in common, yet they find their lives intersecting and connecting with each other. This is a bewitching, original and remarkable read, with twists and turns, with the mysteries surrounding the eponymous clockwork girl, a story that had me enthralled from beginning to end. A book that I am certain will do well on publication. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I don't read much historical fiction, crime or otherwise. No real reason for it, just never seem to have done so and Mandie tends to fill that space on the blog. So glad that I made the exception for The Clockwork Girl. by Anna Mazzola, as I found myself lost in a mystery which was completely compelling, with an underlying sense of unease permeating the narrative from the very start. It has an air of the gothic about it, and sits somewhere between suspense, mystery and a celebration of science, set against a backdrop of 18th Century France and the court of King Louis XV.

At the start of the novel we are introduced to Madeleine, a young woman fate is sealed when her Mother comes to an agreement that will see her working as a chambermaid to the daughter of a celebrated clockmaker. But Dr Maximilian Reinhart is no ordinary clockmaker, and Madeleine's role is not that of an ordinary chambermaid. Her task is to monitor the good Dr and report back to her real paymaster, as to the Dr's behaviour. No easy task in a house where unusual behaviour is commonplace and an air of secrecy unpins everything the Dr does.

I loved getting to know Madeleine as a character. Although put in a position that is completely out of her depth, she adapts quickly and proves to be a very astute and intelligent young woman. She has not had an easy life and the more we learn about her, about how she has suffered since the death of her father, the more drawn into the story I was. She has an enquiring mind, and an understanding which belies her previous position in life working for her mother in a brothel. She has compassion for others, and although she tries to retain a distance from her new mistress, she finds herself slowly pulled into their world.

As for Madeleine's mistress, Veronique, she wants so badly to be loved by her father, and to learn all that he knows, even though, as a women, her lot in life is not planned to be as she would desire. The two women make a great pair, even if their relationship is sometimes strained and uncomfortable. They are not only strong women in this book, a third coming in the uncompromising shape of Madame De Pompadour, King Louis' infamous mistress. Quite where she fits in this particular mystery is something you'll need to read to find out but her involvement is pivotal in how the story progresses.

Alongside Madeleine's quest to uncover just what Dr Reinhart is up to, there is another mystery bubbling just below the surface, one which seems feeds into the sinister feeling that feeds through the story. Young children, some street children, some of poor means, going missing in the night, never to be heard from again. When the mystery comes a little too close to the Reinhart household for comfort, it is not only Madeleine who finds themself on a quest for truth.

As for the eponymous Clockwork Girl, this becomes the central focus of the second half of the novel. Having come to an understanding about Reinhart's behaviour, he becomes engaged in a special project for King Louis who has a disturbing fascination with the idea of reanimation. This part of the book plays out in skin crawling fashion, with surprises for everyone as events unfurl. The are moments of real surprise, scenes that unsettle King Louis and his court, whilst leading to a real change of fate for Reinhart. All of this is leading to a tense and dramatic showdown in which all of the books remaining secrets are revealed to smile inducing effect.

Anna Mazzola has done a brilliant job of creating 18th Century France, even with perhaps a touch of artistic licence as far of some of the story goes. She has created a clear divide between the poor and the aristocracy, and the corruption at the heart of the police, the extent of which made me angry, the more I learned of how far it lead. Her characters are perfect, the women in this book showing their mettle and proving that they should ever be underestimated. I was completely drawn into this strange, sometimes uncomfortable world of Madeleine and the Reinharts, and will definitely be going back to read the author's previous titles. Highly recommended.

My first Anna Mazzola novel didn't disappoint! Deliciously dark, this immediately transported me to C17th Paris & it's social dichotomy. Reminded me of Jenni Spangler's MG books in the same vein. A feast for the senses, loved the historical detail cleverly interwoven throughout.

I really enjoyed The Clockwork Girl. It was both atmospheric and unsettling with creepy, menacing undercurrents weaved throughout the story. I’ve read books based in Paris before but never one that has shown such a seedy, sinister side to the city.

I loved reading the story from the perspective of women from such varying social backgrounds. Each woman, despite being so thoroughly different, was a strong and compelling character in their own way. It was really interesting to see Paris from the viewpoint of the working class, bourgeoisie and the aristocracy.

I also enjoyed knowing that despite the book being a work of fiction, it was inspired by real historical events. The scandal known as ‘The Vanishing Children of Paris’ actually happened as children were disappearing from Parisian streets in 1750. Jeanne Poisson, better known as Madame de Pompadour really was the mistress of King Louis XV and the King did have a fascination with the technological advances of the century.

The book and the events of the time are obviously so well researched but the facts are weaved into the story so flawlessly that it never feels like a boring history lesson.

I would highly recommend The Clockwork Girl and I will definitely be looking out for other books by Anna Mazzola.

Oh what a magnificent story. I loved the language, the texture, the style, the detail. I loved everything about this book. Styled fiction but I am more inclined towards describing the tale as half-truths, it is that believable.

If you like imaginative fiction and who does not, then this is a book you really must have at the top of your reading list.

This review will go live at the first link below on 8 March:

The year is 1750 and we’re taken to Paris, not quite the City of Light we might expect, but rather a dank, dark, smelly city where the lowest classes fight to survive. And things are getting worse every day, with the poorest children being taken from the streets, vanishing. Anna Mazzola took this historical fact and ran with it, giving it her own shocking twist.

The Clockwork Girl is told from three perspectives, giving a voice to three sections of the French population in the 18th century: the poor (Madeleine), the bourgeoisie (Véronique) and the filthy rich (Jeanne). Three women who seemingly have nothing in common, but who are more alike than they know.

Véronique is the clockmaker’s daughter, seventeen, just home from the convent where she grew up, lonely and eager to reconnect with her father, hoping against hope (it’s the 18th century after all) that he’ll make her a full-blown apprentice. Madeleine, who grew up in a brothel, is a mouche for the police, a fly on the wall, a spy sent into the clockmaker’s home to find out if what he’s doing is above board and not dangerous. Jeanne came from rather humble beginnings but is now the King’s mistress, better known as the Marquise de Pompadour.

Telling a story from the POV of one of the more famous women in French history is a rather bold move if you ask me, but it pays off, bigtime. I love how actual historical figures are part of the cast, their lives written seamlessly into their fictional counterparts’ lives, from the Lieutenant General of Police to King Louis XV himself. All this makes The Clockwork Girl a very lush historical tale.

For the most part I would say The Clockwork Girl is a character-driven slowburner. It’s these three women that keep the story and I was captivated by their intertwining lives, their secrets and intrigue. And there is also quite a bit of mystery involved. What is the clockmaker up to, are his secret activities quite as unsavoury as the police seem to think?

The last thirty or so percent is very much plot-driven, with things coming to a head and leading to a very satisfying conclusion, which I can tell you nothing about for obvious reasons. All I can say is that I was turning the pages frantically and didn’t quite know which way was up.

With its vivid writing, its enticing mysteries and its three fascinating narrators, The Clockwork Girl transported me to another time and place and I enjoyed my stay tremendously (despite the fact that I could almost smell all the disgusting smells and feel the grime on my fingers). I would happily recommend it to any and all fans of historical fiction.

Massive thanks to Orion and NetGalley for the eARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a dark little historical novel about the corruption of Louis XV's court. I always feel like Louis XV's reign and court are the most over looked of the later Louis, outshone by Louis XIV (the Sun King) and Louis XVI (husband of Marie Antoinette, toppled by the revolution.) THE CLOCKWORK GIRL is a novel that shows how much there is to explore in Louis XV's reign and brings a lesser illuminated period to stark life.

The monarchy still reigns absolute, but the cracks are showing - and corruption is rife. The police answer to who pays them and put spies everywhere, children are going missing, and rural peasants are flooding into Paris as the economic situation worsens.

There's so much tension and suspicion, which lends itself perfectly to the mystery slowly drawn out over the book. It's definitely a book where the central mystery takes a while to come together and be posed as the mystery/motivation/thing the characters are actively trying to solve, so go in expecting to be drawn in by the characters rather than an early plot hook. Its structure and writing means that it works so well as a character study with lots of clues being set up well before the mystery comes in.

There are three POVs in this book - Madeleine, Veronique, and Jeanne (also known as Madame Pompadou.) It took a few chapters for me to work out Jeanne was Madame Pompadou, but I was very excited once I had as she's such a fascinating historical figure. I loved seeing this older, more calculated side of her, rather than the younger version where the focus is often on her worming her way into the king's bed and then power. This is a woman who held power for much longer than a usual mistress, and kept it once they stopped sharing a bed. And I loved seeing that side of her.

As regards to the ending, I sat with it for a while before deciding what I thought. It wasn't what I'd been expecting going in (for which I largely blame Goodreads shelving!) but I liked how it played on that tension between suspicion and the rationality of the age of enlightenment.

I haven't read such an atmospheric, gripping novel for a long time. The writing is wonderful and the author has pulled off the rare trick of balancing what was clearly exhaustive research, without making you ever feel lectured to.

Wow this was such a good read! It was a little bit magical,and a little bit creepy and a little bit mysterious.
It surprised me a few times.
Full of interesting characters,both good and bad and setting itself both in the squalid streets of Paris,and the opulent rooms of Versailles, Top marks!

Set in pre-revolution Paris, during the height of scientific discovery, The Clockwork Girl is a riveting tale of classism, early technological advances, politics, and the darkness that resides on the fringes of society.

It follows Madeleine, a woman hiding a dark past, who enters the home of enigmatic clockmaker Dr Reinhart, under the guise of being a maid. In truth, she has been hired as a spy by the police, to find out what the Dr is up to and whether he can be trusted.

What follows is a story told in three POVs - Madeleine, Veronique (the clockmakers daughter) and Jeanne, Mistress to King Louis XV. While Dr Reinhart works on a secret project for the King, children in Paris are going missing and Madeleine may be on the cusp of finding out a secret much darker than anyone realised.

This is a riveting book from start to finish. While told in three different POVs, no one character knows what is going on, so this leaves the reader in the dark, scrambling to figure out the dark secrets lurking beneath the streets of Paris. As the story progresses and more questions form, the tension mounts, paralleled by the tensions on the streets of Paris. The climax of the story, when you finally realise what has been going on and everything is revealed, is juxtaposed with the explosion of the riots in Paris, creating a highly thrilling conclusion to the story.

The characters have been fully fleshed out and you can't help but feel for them all. You won't know who to trust during this book. The setting - pre-revolution Paris - is brought to life in vivid detail, making you feel you are walking the streets with the characters. The mechanisms and clockwork pieces are intricately created and delight you. Everything about this book was exquisite in detail.

Highly recommend.

In pre-revolution Paris, the aristocrats enjoy decadent lifestyles whilst everyone else struggles in abject poverty. Madeline, a streetwise young woman, is paid to spy on a clockmaker and his daughter. She poses as a maid to gain access to his house, where she finds his many clockwork inventions increasingly disturbing. At the same time, children start disappearing from Paris' streets. Is there some sort of connection between the two, and just why do the police want information on the eccentric but seemingly harmless old inventor?

The story is told from three perspectives: Madeline's; the clockmaker's daughter Veronique; and Jeanne, better known as Madam Pompadour, the King's mistress. All three are interesting and different characters, but despite the differences in their background and situation, they share the ability to survive in a world that is not set up to favour women. Jeanne is a real historical character, although the story itself is fiction.

18th century France is a good setting for novels, as it was a time of extremes - and extremes always play well for fiction. The descriptions of the corrupt grandeur of the royal palaces, contrasted with the filth and danger of Paris' streets, are well done here. The lead characters are sympathetic, although I never felt deeply emotionally involved with them. It would have been good to have more of Jeanne's perspective as Madam Pompadour was a fascinating person. A lot of the supporting characters lack nuance.

The plot was a bit of a disappointment. It's one of those books that I kept waiting for it to 'take off' and then realised three quarters of the way in that it wasn't going to. I guessed what would happen without too much difficulty - certainly there were no surprises. I found the pace quite slow. The great mystery over what secret invention the clockmaker was working on was somewhat spoilt by the title giving it away. I didn't feel any real sense of intrigue. I wasn't invested enough in the characters to be more than slightly moved by their dilemmas. The first half needed to be more eventful and exciting to hook the reader in and keep the pace up. A slow-burn start can work if it builds up tension and suspense, but that didn't really happen here. It felt more like marking time until something significant happened.

It's perfectly readable and I wouldn't go as far as saying I didn't enjoy it. But there are many better written, more entertaining novels set in this period of French history. It's one of those stories that you are happy enough to read at the time, but isn't likely to stick in the memory afterwards. And sometimes that's all you want in a book. If you're looking for something higher impact or more original though, there are better books to try.

The Clockwork Girl takes readers to Paris in 1750 and is a book you'll find very difficult to put down. The writing is exceptional and the story intriguing. The story is mostly told from Madeleine's point of view. Madeleine is a great character, well written, with secrets of her own, and to help her escape her past, she becomes a maid for Dr Reiinhart and his daughter Veronique.

The story is filled with mystery, children disappearing off the streets, Dr Reinhart creating his automatons, and Veronique who has spent her childhood in a convent. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story as I have all the other books by this author. The historical setting is perfectly executed and based on real historical events. If you enjoy historical fiction that features mystery with a touch of magical realism thrown in, you'll love this book and the story of Madeleine, Veronique, and Madame de Pompadour.

The Clockwork Girl is Anna Mazzola’s third novel and, I think, her best so far. Not only is the cover beautiful, the setting is also wonderfully dark and atmospheric and the story is fascinating.

The year is 1750 and Madeleine Chastel, daughter of a Parisian brothel owner, is about to start a new job as a maid in the household of Dr Reinhart, a Swiss clockmaker. Madeleine is pleased to have an opportunity to escape from her mother’s clutches, but this particular job is not one she has chosen for herself – she has been forced to take it by the chief of police, who wants her to spy on Dr Reinhart and report back on any suspicious activities she witnesses. But although Madeleine soon becomes convinced that the police are correct and something strange is going on in the Reinhart household, she finds that she is growing fond of the clockmaker’s daughter, Veronique, and is reluctant to betray her new friend.

The novel is written from the perspectives of three different characters: Madeleine is one, Veronique is another and the third is Jeanne Poisson, better known as Madame de Pompadour, mistress of King Louis XV. I found the choice of narrators very effective as it means we are given insights into every level of Parisian society – the working class, the bourgeoisie or middle class, and the aristocracy. Our story takes place several decades before the French Revolution would begin, but you can see the foundations being laid here as tensions start to simmer. The various locations in which the novel is set are vividly described, with sharp contrasts between the dark, dirty streets where the poor people live in squalor and the luxury and opulence of the royal palaces of Versailles and the Louvre.

Although The Clockwork Girl is a work of fiction, it is inspired by several real historical events. First, the disappearance of children from the streets of Paris in 1750, a scandal known as ‘The Vanishing Children of Paris’. And secondly, the technological advances during the 18th century in the creation of automata – clockwork dolls, animals and other machines with moving parts. Anna Mazzola weaves both of these things into the plot and the result is an engaging and unusual novel that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

I love books set in France during this era, a dichotomy of decadence and destitution, and this book did not disappoint. I loved the underlying feeling of darkness laced between the more whimsical elements of the story, and that the author didn't shy away from depicting the grim reality of those living in poverty, which really informed the character of the protagonist.

(Many thanks to Netgalley and Orion Publishing Group for the eARC.)

What a wonderful read this book is set in 1750s it transport’s you to the bustling streets of Paris and the reign of Louis XV and for me it really captured the atmosphere of what it must have been like. It’s a magical, mysterious tale of missing children, clockwork automata that seem truly lifelike and a whole host of characters that are not all likeable and frankly very unpleasant.
I enjoyed the mystery it was different and kept me guessing, the descriptions of life at court especially that of Versailles I really did love and I know the author did a lot of research to get this spot on.
So a book with a difference so well written it captured me from the start, my third book by Anna Mazzola and I look forward to reading more from her in the future.
My thanks to NetGalley and Orion Publishing Group for giving me the chance to read the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Sumptuous, elegant and engrossing, this is the book you need to whisk you away from Covid times. Anna Mazzola possesses the rare skill of being able to write utterly authentic historical fiction while also maintaining the pace and tension required by the modern day reader. Featuring missing children, a mysterious workshop and a heroine to root for, The Clockwork Girl is an eerie, immersive treat

I didn't know what to expect from this book having never heard of the author before but being a massive lover of historical fiction, I wanted to pick up this book.
For me, the story started off quite slowly and I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get into it. There was quite a lot of French words which made it sometimes difficult to understand what was meant, however, I slowly started to warm to the plot and the main character Madeleine.
Once I was engrossed in the story line, I found the book was full of mystery and suspense and I couldn't wait to find out what Dr Reinhart was up to with his inventions.
I loved the fact that although fiction, the author used real people from history as part of the story, this really helped me to picture what it would have been like in Paris in the 1700's.
After reading this novel, I am definitely going to seek out Anna's previous books.