The Dark Unwinding

August 20, 2012
In 1852, 17-year-old orphan Katharine Tulman is faced with a monumental task: travel from London to Stranwyne Keep, her uncle's Victorian estate in the country, and commit him to an asylum. He has supposedly become "unbalanced in his mind" and is depleting Katharine's cousin's inheritance with his projectsâand Katharine herself has designs on that money. Strange, haunting things begin to happen the moment haughty Katharine arrives at Stranwyne, but her attitude changes as she discovers her uncle's ingenious toy inventions, learns about his gasworks that employ and house hundreds from the workhouses, and falls for his attractive apprentice, Lane. Just as romance and fun enter Katharine's life for the first time, she begins to have inexplicable, violent episodes that put her future, the town, and England in peril. Inspired by the life of an eccentric real-life duke, Cameron's eerie and suspenseful first novel offers gripping twists, rich language, and an evocative landscape. Readers should find it easy to become fully absorbed in this gothic coming-of-age story about finding unexpected freedom. Ages 12âup. Agent: Kelly Sonnack, Andrea Brown Literary Agency.

August 15, 2012
"Why had life singled me out for drudgery and isolation, and to be the instrument of others' unhappiness?" Katharine, an orphan reliant entirely upon the charity of her father's sister-in-law, has been dispatched by her horrid aunt to the estate of her father's only remaining living sibling--to declare him a lunatic and thereby settle the family's fortune on her odious cousin. The pragmatic 17-year-old is astounded and appalled to find that Stranwyne is home to a gasworks, a kiln and a foundry, along with two idyllic villages populated by some 800 souls plucked from the workhouses of London to serve and support her Uncle Tully. While far from a lunatic, Katharine's uncle is nevertheless terribly vulnerable, a man today's readers will recognize as on the autistic spectrum, a wizard with numbers and gadgets but entirely helpless in society. At the behest of handsome, gray-eyed Lane, her uncle's chief caregiver, Katharine agrees to a stay of 30 days, possibly the only free days of her entire life. Cameron, through wry, observant Katharine, spins a deliciously gothic tale peopled with appealing and not-so-appealing secondary characters, punctuated by the requisite madness and shot through with intrigue. Though readers may not be surprised by Katharine's arc, there are more than enough twists and turns along the way to maintain suspense. By turns funny and poignant, this period mystery is a thoroughgoing delight. (Historical mystery. 12-16)

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December 1, 2012

Gr 7-10-Katherine Tulman, 17, faces an impossible decision when she arrives at Stranwyne Keep, in 1852. Her avaricious aunt wishes to seize the profitable estate and orders Katherine's visit so that she may declare her husband insane. Upon her arrival, however, Katherine learns that her eccentric uncle's clockwork factory employs hundreds of individuals plucked from workhouses. Doing her aunt's bidding would undoubtedly send them back into poverty. Katherine receives a warm welcome from her likely autistic uncle and a quirky village girl, Mary Brown. Her uncle's brooding assistant and his aunt treat her with greater suspicion. Katherine wonders if she, like her Uncle Tully, is losing her grip on reality as she struggles with nighttime visions. She must decide between her self-interest and her uncle's well-being even as more sinister characters begin to emerge. Cameron's debut novel reads like a steampunk fantasy. Detailed descriptions of the keep and grounds make for admirable world-building. Secret passages, canals, and Victorian furnishings drip from every page. Tully's clockwork creations seem wondrous, even eerily animated, adding to the story's chilling sense of dread. The villain's identity will be obvious to readers, and Katherine wavers overlong in her deliberations, but teens are not likely to mind as they experience Katherine's romantic and moral dilemma. Hand this to fans of Kenneth Oppel or Libba Bray, and readers who pursue history, invention, or romance. They will find Cameron's scientific fable to their taste.-Caitlin Augusta, Stratford Library Association, CT

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2013
Sent by her greedy aunt to commit her uncle to a lunatic asylum, penniless Katharine discovers her eccentric uncle is a mechanical genius. Soon it's clear something bigger is going on than an effort to protect the estate's future. Like Uncle Tulman's fine machinery, the plot's many cogs each have a place in this dense novel written in fluid prose.

(Copyright 2013 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

November 1, 2012
This novel, set in 1850s England, is like an intricate piece of clockwork, and at the center of it is Katharine Tulman, a clock that [has] lost its key. The penniless Katharine has been sent by her greedy aunt to Stranwyne Keep on a mission to commit her uncle to a lunatic asylum in order to preserve her cousin's inheritance. But Katharine discovers that her eccentric (and seemingly autistic) uncle Tulman is a mechanical genius, and that the estate has been developed around his inventive talent. Katharine finds a peculiar sense of community among the people who surround her uncle (including his dark, moody, attractive apprentice). However, the novel turns sinister as she starts waking up in strange places and committing acts she doesn't remember. It soon becomes clear that something bigger is going on at Stranwyne than the effort to protect the future of the estate. Much like Uncle Tulman's fine machinery, each cog of the plot -- and there are many -- has its own place, making a dense, tight novel written in fluid prose. The strong romantic influence of the Bront's is not hard to notice, but first-novelist Cameron also does justice to the Enlightenment era, with its poverty, poor working conditions, and the threat of war against France, in the assembly of this singularly polished piece. ariel baker-gibbs

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)