The Lost Future of Pepperharrow
by Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury, 2020)
audiobook read by Thomas Judd (Bloomsbury, 2020)
By far the most satisfying of the Watchmaker books. Pulley commits fully both to the speculative premise and to Thaniel and Mori’s relationship, at the same time crafting an immersive historical novel whose characters are rounded well beyond their contribution to plot.
The Bedlam Stacks
by Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury, 2017); audiobook read by David Thorpe (Bolinda, 2018)
Pulley’s second novel harks back thematically to her first: two nineteenth-century men from different cultures forge an unlikely friendship against a convincing backdrop of historical detail and subtly revealed magic realism. Slow-moving yet engaging, albeit with Keita Mori rather arbitrarily thrown in.
The Watchmaker of Filigree Street
by Natasha Pulley (Bloomsbury Circus, 2015); audiobook read by Thomas Judd (Bolinda, 2016)
A gently paced novel that, while slow to introduce its speculative element, bolsters this by way of historical detail. Pulley’s prose brings late 19th century London to life. The plot, when it emerges, is memorable, though perhaps too languorous to fully satisfy.