Pulley expertly employs the tools of mystery and fantasy to examine the social pressures faced by the marginalized. Carrow is determined to prove Mori’s guilt, and driven to make a scientific discovery that will free her from the limits society has placed on women. When Steepleton receives word of a clockwork bombing and an anonymous gift of a pocket watch on the same day, he begins investigating Mori, who has been accused of building the explosive device-but those accusations are rooted in English xenophobia and exploitation of Japanese immigrants. Their lives are brought together and into peril by association with Keita Mori, a genius watchmaker who can “remember” the future. Grace Carrow is a scientist seeking out the mysteries of ether. Nathaniel Steepleton is a telegraph clerk in the Home Office, trapped in a life as regular as clockwork. It captures the frenetic energy of a world undergoing extraordinary changes: London in the time of new electrical devices, Gilbert and Sullivan’s theater, and the terror of Irish nationalist bombings. Pulley’s electrifying debut is a triumph of speculative fiction.
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