The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Book Title: The Watchmaker of Filigree Street

Author: Natasha Pulley

Date Started: June 19th 2015

Date Completed: June 24th 2015

Genres: Historical, Mystery, Romance
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars

Final Rating: Five stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is the perfect mix of an old fashioned crime mystery and a charming story of genuine human qualities. The oriental influence puts a certain vibrancy into 18th century London that enhances every part of the book: from the beautiful character relationships to the risky area of police work.

I really liked Pulley's writing from the start: it's simple enough to be able to read quickly and easily, but still manages to add layers onto the characterisation and dialogue so that it comes across as realistic and developed. The problem with 'simple' writing is sometimes a lack of depth to the story, but Pulley somehow finds a way around this and really captures the atmosphere in her words. 

Her attention to the world building was probably my favourite thing in this novel. The detail and almost magical quality of the things happening around the characters added that extra flair to a setting that, while still interesting and bursting with life, was in danger of becoming very stiff with historical accuracy - rather than the limits of the imagination.

The unconventional plot line in The Watchmaker of Filigree Street was really refreshing. Originality is a hard thing to come by these days, but Pulley manages to pull it off with her mix of genres and spread focus on both the mystery, world building and relationships of the characters.

There was a great control on events and their spiralling out of control, as well. The narrative tricks you into thinking the story is going one way, and then it goes in another so naturally that it must have been planned. Having said that, I was well aware that I was being led down a certain path and there was a lot more going on behind the scenes; but from very early on I started trusting Pulley to take it wherever she wanted to, and she would still be able to make it good. Maybe at times this was a little misguided, but overall it went well. I loved that you could see even minor characters influencing the story out of the protagonists' control - and in hindsight, when you know the twists, it makes it even more impressive.

When it came to explanations towards the end, I have to say I didn't quite understand the magical side of things, and the mystery became quite hard to follow. After the slow pace, the resolution to the story seemed to come in a bit of a whirlwind, but mostly I'm happy to let it sit since everything else was handled so well throughout the whole book.

Momentum was lost just after the middle of the book, and things did kind of go downhill from there, but things picked up again right near the end, and so the ending feeling wasn't necessarily what I expected, but was still satisfying. The bitter sweet nature of it fitted perfectly with the rest of the book, and the time Pulley left at the end for the consequences of the climax to play out was a brilliant call in making the whole novel draw together nicely.

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street has some great characters that have both bad and good sides that play a big part in the story. Even minor characters have their own mannerisms that are unique to them (I really appreciate this attention to smaller characters that makes them different from each other).

Thaniel was a nice protagonist, and though I have to say he lacked the uniqueness of the other characters, I was still rooting for him and thought he was a really interesting person to follow in the main story: at some point or another, he's manipulated by everyone.

As the title character, I would've expected Mori himself to be followed in the story, but actually having him as a person only ever looked at from another 'perspective' exaggerated how little we know about him. Pulley also uses her technique of tricking the reader into thinking they have him pegged, but then twisting his personality around at the last minute - it makes quite an interesting time trying to solve the puzzle before the characters, I can tell you that.

My favourite character was probably Grace: at first you expect her to be the typical intelligent, independent woman often thrown into historical fiction to tick the feminist box - and I think she does prove her own worth several times over. But at the same time she is restricted without a husband, and so she sometimes has to act to overcome this. There are so many hints dropped throughout the beginning of the book showing this quite clearly, but we still somehow ignore them because we expect her to slide into the conventional norm. This is an important thing I'm not sure everyone would get from reading this book: Grace does some harsh things because she feels she has to, and whether it's true or not, it doesn't make her a bad person.

Pulley's book is definitely a slow building mystery; and mirrors this in the relationships too. You often get to a part of the book and think the mystery is solved, or expect something to end, but you're taken in a completely new direction to get in even deeper to the story. I didn't mind this slow pace because of the world building and the diversity of characters, but don't expect an on-the-edge-of-your-seat mystery thriller.

Though there were some weaker parts, The Watchmaker of Filigree was overall wonderful. As a lover of the 18th century and fantasy, steampunk settings, the world of Pulley's book itself was enough to entice me - but combine that with an original plot line, some truly individual characters, and a beautiful little story there wasn't much else that could've been done to make me love it more.

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