Little Spark
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Canongate Books
Publishing:13th Aug '26
£18.99
This title is due to be published on 13th August, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
'A sumptuous Gothic mystery' NAT REEVE, author of NETTLEBLACK
'Kidd has imagination to die for' Guardian
A secret cannot stay locked away forever
Bodkin 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.
Weird, wonderful and utterly immersive; a sumptuous Gothic mystery full of unexpected shocks! Dare to enter Bodkin Bell's world, where the writing is delicious, the twists are plentiful, and the shadowy secrets of a stately home can and will be unlocked by sheer neurodivergent determination -- NAT REEVE
Little Spark has everything I love - twisted secrets, dark deeds, a huge creepy house in the middle of nowhere and an extraordinary protagonist with dangerous powers and a heart like no other. I love Jess's writing and I was completely hooked from the first page. Little Spark is deliciously dark and twisty and keeps the reader guessing until the final pages. Marvellous -- RUTH HOGAN
Praise for Jess Kidd: Lyrical, haunting, a beautiful and elegant fictional interpretation of history, I loved it -- KATE MOSSE
Utterly mesmerising . . . A triumph. Kidd's imagination - her ability to imagine a world more magical, darker, richer than our own - is a thing of wonder * * New York Times Book Review * *
Majestic . . . Kidd packs the story with superb characters, high emotion and drama . . . this gripping story ebbs and bobs with surprises from Kidd's sparkling imagination * * Independent * *
The ambition and execution of The Night Ship is breathtaking! Sweet and grim, epic and domestic - I loved it . . . readers are in for a treat -- GRAHAM NORTON
[A] marvellous, spirited novel * * Financial Times * *
Jess Kidd's extraordinary evocation of a place gruesome with ghosts and the stranglehold of the past is nothing short of brilliant. I loved it -- HANNAH KENT
ISBN: 9781838856557
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
352 pages
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