Book Review: The Clock Maker’s Secret

About the Book

A buried clock holds the key to a decades-old mystery….

On holiday to escape the nightmares of his last case, disgraced soldier turned private detective John “Slim” Hardy comes upon something buried in the peat on Bodmin Moor. 

Unfinished, water-damaged, but still ticking, the old clock provides a vital clue to an unsolved missing-persons case. 

As Slim begins to ask questions of the tiny Cornish village of Penleven, he is drawn into a world of lies, rumors, and secrets – some of which the residents would prefer to stay buried. 

Twenty-three years ago, a reclusive clockmaker left his workshop and walked out onto Bodmin Moor, taking his last, unfinished clock with him. He disappeared. 

Slim is determined to find out why. 

The Clockmaker’s Secret is the stunning sequel to Jack Benton’s acclaimed debut, The Man by the Sea.

Purchase Links:

Amazon/Audible: https://www.amazon.com/Clockmakers-Secret-Slim-Hardy-Mystery-ebook/dp/B07GSM1LKK

Chirp: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks/the-clockmaker-s-secret-by-jack-benton

My Review

I listened to the audio book, The Clock Maker’s Secret, by Jack Benton and narrated by Kevin Green. The British voice of Green helps to set you in both time and place, although Benton gives us enough to determine this even if reading a print or digital copy. But I do think Green’s voice adds an extra allure to the story. Benton has skillfully laid out this well-crafted mystery, filled with surprising revelations, as all is not as it seems.

Detective John ‘Slim’ Hardy is on holliday, trying to outrun the demons of his past, but true to his nature, when he finds an old clock buried and hidden, he just can’t resist a good mystery. It’s made by a clockmaker who disappeared many years ago. But there are those in Penleven who perhaps don’t want to see the clock’s secrets revealed. As Slim works to unravel the clock’s mystery, he finds that the clockmaker had a few secrets of his own, and the deeper he gets, the more he wonders if the clockmaker’s secret isn’t best left buried.

A gripping mystery which takes several surprising turns. I give The Clockmaker’s Secret five quills.

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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.