About This Book
First Place winner in the Young Adult category in the 7th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published E-book Awards!
. . . a delightful adventure with a street-smart narrator with a heart of gold. . . . overall, a spirited story with a lot of heart . . . – Judge, 2019 Writer's Digest Self-Published eBook Awards
A ticking, tocking, whooshing great read. The combination of meticulous historical research with wonderfully imaginative flights of fancy sets the scene for adventure . . . Boston has never been so much fun! – Sarah Stewart Taylor, author of The Mountains Wild, The Sweeney St. George mysteries, and The Expeditioners series
It's 1853. Steam is threatening sail, factories are displacing tradesmen, and the immigrants are Irish – unwanted as ever. Young Finn O'Neill is learning the trade of a boatman from his father, when into Boston Harbor sails a Chinese junk, bearing mysteries, magic, and a firebrand named An-Ming.
Finn and his da work for a young clock mender, Peter Jenkins, rowing him out to meet incoming ships and offer his service. The junk carries Matthew Lawson, a Boston merchant who disappeared in China over 50 years ago but looks hardly a day older. An-Ming is his half-Chinese daughter – smart, commanding, and headstrong as a Malay pirate. They hire Peter to repair a fantastic Chinese clock and to build a new one as precise as a chronometer. The clock, Finn learns, is the key to Mr. Lawson's long life.
Finn's own life isn't so easy. He's Irish and poor, and Da O'Neill has a fondness for drink, a penchant for brawling, and a cough that rattles deeper in his chest every day. An-Ming becomes Finn's friend, but she also becomes the target of increasingly violent attempts at abduction. Finn fights with his fists, his wits, and his skill on the water to keep her safe, but nothing, it seems, can save his father from disease. Except perhaps the clock. Just how far is Finn willing to go to save his da?
