Jeremy de Quidt, The Toymaker

The toymaker is a book intended for children. But I'm not quite sure what age those children are supposed to be at.

I'm in my thirties but I'm a librarian, so I'm allowed to read childrens books without embarrasment - it is for research, I say.

This book though - the main characters are somewhere between 12-14 years old. Which means the intended audience is 14 years or less. No self-respecting teenagers (I know this is a contradiction in terms) would read a book about someone younger than themselves. But I think the younger children would be scared by the books contents.

It is a kind of creepy story, but also captivating.

I bought it simply because of the title and the cover. It depicts a beautiful doll with two cards in front of her, one card reads truth, the other reads lie.

To me it suggested some sort of scary story, and somehow the thought of artificial intelligence - but in a setting which indicates Switzerland in the 1800s.

The main character, Mathias, is an orphan living with his grandfather. His grandfather has a secret, and is hiding from someone dangerous, to keep this secret hidden. When the grandfather dies, Mathias inadvertently enherits the secret.

Unfortunately the secret passes into his possession just as his grandfather's followers catches up with them.

The story has quite a few threads that are never tied together. And you are left wishing the book was longer, or that there is a sequel. But as of yet, a sequel has not been published.

I'd recommend the book to adults, maybe not as much for children. It would depend on the age of the child.