A SUNDAY TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION PICK 2026

'A sumptuous Gothic mystery' NAT REEVE, author of NETTLEBLACK
'Kidd has imagination to die for' Guardian

A secret cannot stay locked away forever

Bodkin Bell, orphan, pickpocket and survivor, doesn't know where she came from, but she knows she's different. Gaslights flare as she walks past. Cutlery spins. Shocks fly from her fingertips.

For years, she was 'Little Spark', the star of an electrifying travelling act - until it went too far and she ended up in a London gaol.

Now she's been offered a way out. A chance to serve at Point Mote, a vast, desolate house marooned on the misty Kent marshes. There, she will assist a reclusive family of cunning inventors in the creation of automata: miraculous, lifelike machines for which gentlemen collectors will pay handsomely.

But this house of wonders hides mysteries too. As Bodkin starts to question why she is really there, she unearths secrets that have been buried bone-deep for years - and a truth beyond all imagining. One that was never meant to be found.

"Few contemporary writers combine the historical with the fantastical with as much panache as Jess Kidd. Her originality and offbeat imagination are once more on display in her latest novel . . . Kidd unfolds a narrative that is as unusual as it is entertaining" - * Sunday Times *

"Wildly imaginative . . . [a] thrilling story . . . All is not as it seems as secrets are revealed and mysterious connections are discovered in this terrific steampunk tale" - * Daily Mail *

"If you like your historical fiction with a touch of the gothic, Jess Kidd's latest should be at the top of your pile . . . Richly imagined and atmospheric, it's the kind of novel that feels tailor-made for disappearing into over a long summer weekend" - * Image *

"I love Kidd's cracking prose, which whisks uinto the mysterious, Gothic life of Victorian orphan Bodkin Bell" - * Bookseller *

"Cunning clockwork, marvellous automata, an isolated ramshackle mansion, stuffed with sinister secrets, and an orphan heroine with a wayward heart and a knack for getting to the truth make this a bewitching Gothic mystery" - * Simple Things *

"Utterly mesmerising . . . A triumph. Kidd's imagination - her ability to imagine a world more magical, darker, richer than our own - is a thing of wonder" - * New York Times Book Review *

"Majestic . . . Kidd packs the story with superb characters, high emotion and drama . . . this gripping story ebbs and bobs with surprises from Kidd's sparkling imagination" - * Independent *