Little Spark 9781838856557 Hardback

ASUNDAY TIMESHISTORICAL FICTION PICK 2026’A sumptuous Gothic mystery’ NAT REEVE, author ofNETTLEBLACK’Kidd has imagination to die for’Guardian’This tale of secrets and mysteries is steeped in atmospheric suspense. Gothic, yes, but galvanised by flashes of inventive wonder’Mail on SundayWildly imaginative . . . [a] terrific steampunk tale’Daily MailA secret cannot stay locked away foreverBodkin 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.