One magical summer turns into a nightmare when a young girl discovers the secrets locked into a reclusive toymaker's mansion.

From the internationally bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind comes a chilling mystery about one magical summer that turns into a nightmare . . .

When fourteen-year-old Irene Sauvelle moves with her family to Cape House on the coast of Normandy, she's immediately taken by the beauty of the place--its expansive cliffs, coasts, and harbors. There, she meets a local boy named Ishmael, and the two soon fall in love. But a dark plot is about to unfold involving a reclusive toymaker who lives in a gigantic mansion filled with mechanical beings and shadows of the past.

As strange lights shine through the fog surrounding a small, barren island, Irene's younger brother dreams of a dark creature hidden deep in the forest. And when a young girl is found murdered, her body at the end of a path torn through the woods by a monstrous, inhuman force, Irene and Ishmael wonder--has a demonic presence been unleashed on the inhabitants of Cape House? Together, they'll have to survive the most terrifying summer of their lives.

"A pleasingly old-fashioned chiller, set in Normandy just before the second world war. Irene goes to stay in the Blue Bay when her mother becomes housekeeper to toymaker Lazarus Jann. A mystery filled with creepy automata and deadly secrets." - FT.COM

"Very well-written, and full of suspense, it has all the appeal of an ancient story-book, with black and white line-drawings at the start of every chapter." - THE SCHOOL LIBRARIAN