The Hourglass Factory

LoveReading Says

Longlisted for the HWA Goldsboro Debut Crown Award Longlist 2016.

A Maxim Jakubowski selected title.

A splendid debut for a new Scottish author until now best known for her short stories, this is a bracing tale of teeming 1912 London set in the world of hardy, angry suffragettes and the colours of the circus, with an atmosphere that sits aside the best of Angela Carter and Sarah Waters. Troublemaking ersatz feminist and trapeze artist Ebony Diamond vanishes and her trail is taken up by tyro reporter and tomboy Frankie George.

Historical pulp of the first order, with villains, corset fetishists and a bubbling vat of colourful crazies, thriving with life in a Dickensian version of London, this is bawdy, gripping but more importantly fun and brings the past to life with vivaciousness and pinpoint detail. Rather exhilarating.

The Lovereading view...

Prepare yourself, as once you dive on board, this riveting historical mystery demands that you keep up and hold on tight. 1912 London is not only brought to life, all of your senses are drawn in, you can feel the noise, taste the dirt, experience the pain and the resolute, relentless… sometimes fanaticism of the suffragette movement.

The beginning, focusing separately on a would be journalist and a detective, can often feel as though you are in two divided worlds, however as the tension escalates they start to twist and writhe together building towards an explosive climax. Intrigue and suspense marches brazenly hand in hand with the vivid descriptive detailing and it is easy to lose yourself completely in the storytelling.

This is an excitingly different read, combining a fascinating period in history with a stimulating mystery, fabulous stuff! - Liz Robinson

Visit our 'Women's Words - 60+ works of feminist-minded fiction' to explore our collection of feminist-minded fiction from around the world, and across centuries.

Reviewed by Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a London-based novelist and editor.
More reviews by Maxim Jakubowski

About The Hourglass Factory

1912 and London is in turmoil...The suffragette movement is reaching fever pitch but for broke Fleet Street tomboy Frankie George, just getting by in the cut-throat world of newspapers is hard enough. Sent to interview trapeze artist Ebony Diamond, Frankie finds herself fascinated by the tightly laced acrobat and follows her across London to a Mayfair corset shop that hides more than one dark secret. Then Ebony Diamond mysteriously disappears in the middle of a performance, and Frankie is drawn into a world of tricks, society columnists, corset fetishists, suffragettes and circus freaks.

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