
Brace yourself: this is a novel set partially in Whitechapel in the 1880s that does not so much as glance at Jack the Ripper. I know, right? What even are the 1880s in Whitechapel for? Well, in this case, a young man working as a clerk for the Home Office is saved from a bomb set by Irish Republicans by a watch made by a clairvoyant Japanese watchmaker, so…sorry you asked?
In perfect fairness, I think this novel’s setting is a couple of years early for the Ripper, though some characters do work for Scotland Yard. The protagonist, Nathaniel (annoyingly, “Thaniel” – what kind of authorial choice is that?) goes in search of the watchmaker (Keita Mori), partly from curiosity and partly to appease his cop buddy, and soon finds himself living in the man’s spare room, having his socks stolen by a clockwork octopus named Katsu that is the Most Steampunk. Meanwhile, in Oxford, a young woman is finishing her degree in physics and facing a future in which her parents won’t give her financial support unless she follows the required Victorian path of marriage and babies. What Will Happen When They Meet?
Mercifully, this novel takes a sharp left turn about three-quarters through into territory I honestly did not expect, and which I will certainly not spoil for anyone else. I wouldn’t say that the eventual developments make it good, as such, but they lift it out of mere genre banality and into something slightly unusual. One gripe I do have is the arbitrary solving of the novel’s central mystery; I was somewhat appeased by the cameo appearance of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, which sadly means I have not entirely escaped the life chosen for me by my musical theatre nerd parents. Adequate, entertaining, but not for anyone who isn’t already a genre convert.