Splendors and glooms

by Laura Amy Schlitz · 2012

When Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, invites the charismatic puppeteer Gaspare Grisini to perform at her twelfth birthday, the night takes a dark turn. Clara vanishes, and suspicion falls on Grisini and his two orphaned assistants, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, who are thrust into a frantic search through fog‑laden Victorian London. As they uncover the puppeteer’s sinister past, the trio flees a city that seems to conspire against them, only to be ensnared by Grisini’s ancient rival—a witch determined to shed a deadly inheritance before it consumes her. Laura Amy Schlitz weaves a brooding, Dickensian gothic tale of mystery, magic, and dark comedy, where the line between puppet and puppeteer blurs and hope flickers amid the shadows.