Book Review: "A Spark Unseen" by Sharon Cameron

Sharon Cameron first came to my attention as an author when I read her first book, The Dark Unwinding, last fall. I fell in love with it, finished it in two days, and have been combing through piles of Advance Reader Copies ever since, looking for the next installment of the story. Welp, I finally found it, and it's called A Spark Unseen.

But before I tell you about this second book in the series, let me introduce you to our protagonist, Miss Katherine Tulman, as I first met her in The Dark Unwinding.  She was then the orphaned ward of her aunt Alice in London, where she was little better than a servant. Her only goal in life was to secure enough funds of her own to escape her aunt and useless cousin, and that goal began to seem possible when Katherine was sent to Stranwyne Keep, her grandmother's estate, on Alice's business. The estate had been held by Katherine's uncle, her father's brother, for years. But rumor had been circulating that he had lost his mind, and so Alice jumped on the opportunity to secure the estate for her own son. She did this by sending Katherine to observe her uncle and attest to his lunacy upon her return to London. In exchange, Aunt Alice would ensure that Katherine was not completely destitute.

Katherine is determined to send her uncle "Tully" away to an asylum and finally win her freedom from the vile Aunt Alice. But once she arrives at Stranwyne, she discovers an entire world built around her rather unique uncle. The townsfolk think of him kindly, despite his many oddities and reclusive nature, and the town's commerce is thriving with the pottery that is produced there. The estate is well-managed, and in no real need of Aunt Alice's intervention. Indeed, Katherine becomes more and  more aware of what she would be destroying should she choose to put her uncle in an asylum, as she well could. But the marvels that he designs in his workshop with the help of the handsome but aloof Lane fascinate her, as they do Ben Aldridge, who is studying Uncle Tully's creations and how they work.

As her time at Stranwyne continues, Katherine becomes more and more convinced that Uncle Tully must not be committed. But as her certainty grows, she becomes less and less sure of herself, and her strange bouts of lost memory and strange states of mental vacancy worsen. Is she losing her own mind just as she gains the trust and possibly love of Uncle Tully's closest caretakers (including Lane, a silent boy named Davy and his bunny, and the dour Aunt Bit)? Will she be packed off to an asylum just as poor Uncle Tully?

*SPOILER ALERT* I'm happy to report, dear reader, that she is not. In fact, it turns out that poor Katherine is being drugged with opium by the seemingly nice Ben Aldridge. He is actually a French spy, who plans on using Uncle Tully's innovations as the basis for a new weapon that we would today most closely liken to a torpedo. After nearly killing Katherine and flooding the lower village as well as part of Stranwyne Keep, Ben tries to make his escape with Uncle Tully's prototype device. However, Katherine manages to blow up his small boat as he's making his getaway. Ben is presumed dead, although his body is not recovered. In the fallout from all the intrigue and Katherine's refusal to go along with Aunt Alice's plan to take over Stranwyne, several things happen that prove important in A Spark Unseen: Aunt Alice comes to Stranwyne for an update and finds that Katherine and Lane are a couple of sorts. This is troubling since Katherine is a lady and Lane a servant. Additionally, Katherine discovers that her father left her a very large inheritance, and that Aunt Alice never had much of a hold on her to begin with. Katherine becomes the steward of Stranwyne Keep with the help of Mr. Babcock, the estate's solicitor. But this happy new life is clouded by the arrival of Mr. Wickersham, an agent of the British government. Troubled by Ben Aldridge's actions and by what the French could be planning, Mr. Wickersham enlists Lane with his French heritage to travel to France and spy for the British.

This is where A Spark Unseen picks up, with Katherine safely in charge of a once again thriving Stranwyne Keep and her uncle happily at play with his mechanical creations. But there has been no word from Lane in months, and most of the household has lost hope that he is still alive. After two men attempt to kidnap Uncle Tully out of Stranwyne, Mr. Wickersham arrives with the intention of bringing Katherine and Uncle Tully to London to continue work on a British prototype of a torpedo. Uncle Tully, in his mental state, does not react well to the new and unknown. So to ensure that he does not become a lab rat to the British government, Katherine and her faithful maid Mary contrive to fake Uncle Tully's death and take him away to Paris. Of course in addition to protecting her uncle, Katherine is determined to find Lane. But the situation is much more complicated than she imagines, and soon she's in over her head with both French and British spies, nosy English neighbors, a missing Mr. Babcock, the Emperor of France, Ben Aldridge, and still no sign of Lane. For just how long can one hide someone as brilliant as Uncle Tully in a city like Paris?

Please, please, please don't be fooled by the covers on these books. They look like ditzy teen romances, yes, but they belie the intricate story within. Katherine is a strong female protagonist who sometimes gets in over her head, but recognizes the hopelessness of anything other than slogging onward, and Mary is a wonderful, endearing friend and coconspirator to Katherine. In addition to Lane (who is still self-righteous enough to annoy me sometimes but it works well in context) and Mr. Babcock, a host of new characters is introduced including Frenchmen Henri and Jean Baptiste, and Josef, the return of Ben Aldridge under a different name, and the revelation of Mrs. Hardcastle as an ally.

The introduction of electricity to Uncle Tully's work is another stroke of genius, although not as much happened with it as I would have imagined until the final scene with Uncle Tully and Ben Aldridge. But I have a feeling that it will be playing a larger role in the next book, as will Lane's heritage. Ben's near insanity was very well written, and entirely believable. Similarly believable were Lane's actions while he was missing, although again here his attitude about not being good enough for Katherine made me "harumph" and shake my head in disapproval.

Uncle Tully in himself is a magnificent character, not just because he provides a focal point for the evolving story but because of who he is. If I had to make a guess, I'd diagnose Uncle Tully with some form of autism. He is brilliant and often single-minded in his work, creating the most fascinating machines from inside his own head. In addition, he has a preoccupation with time and numbers, and loves clocks, Lane, Katherine (whom he calls "Simon's baby" in reference to his brother, Katherine's father) and Marianna, who was Uncle Tully's mother. He is sweet and endearing but also sometimes frightening in his reactions to things that he perceives as "not right" and to things that interrupt his personal schedule. Katherine's struggle to understand and provide for her uncle are rewarded with the appreciation she develops for him and his talents, and the eventual demonstrations of love that he shows her. It's a beautiful sort of relationship that is often overlooked by popular literature, and I give an (extra) tip of my hat to Cameron for depicting it so beautifully.

So I tell you, get up and go find yourself a copy of The Dark Unwinding as soon as your favorite local bookstore opens! If you're a sucker for steampunk and Victorian England like I am, you'll adore it. And while you're at it, check out the inspiration behind Stranwyne Keep here at Sharon Cameron's website! The second book in the series, A Spark Unseen, will be released in October of this year. Check with your bookstore to find out about preorders!