Clockwork Three, by Matthew Kirby (fiction) - automated man, secret music, hidden clues

Mysterious doings, nefarious plots, and a green violin! Three young people from widely different backgrounds become friends as they seek the links between strange items, even stranger events, and villainous strangers in a seaside city with a wild parkland at its heart.

A woodcarver's long-stilled hands left behind clues in the hotel doors and banisters. Secret knowledge hidden by the Guild of Clockmakers could be key. A mechanical man has more heart than the city's businessmen, and the treasure hidden in the park holds the city together.

Debut author Kirby said that a old newspaper article about a young boy kidnapped and forced to fiddle on the streets for his masters was his inspiration for the opening events of this wondrous tale. Share the city and its mysteries with Guiseppe, Hannah, and Frederick.
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Book info: The Clockwork Three / Matthew J. Kirby. Scholastic, 2010. [author's website] [publisher site] [book trailer]

Recommendation: A shipwrecked violin whose music is magical… 62 holly leaves carved into the hotel woodwork (or is it 63?)… a mechanical man with no head and a clockwork head with no heart…

In a seaport city, the paths of an orphaned street musician, a young hotel maid, and an apprentice clockmaker cross and recross as they struggle with missing pieces of memory and money and mystery. Who is the lovely lady that selects Hannah as her personal attendant from the hotel staff? Will Guiseppe be able to hide enough coins from the gangboss for a ship ticket back to his homeland? And what of the sinister crates which Frederick sees unloaded at the museum, but are quickly hidden from the Guild of Clockmakers?

When the green park at the heart of the city is threatened by greedy developers, the three young people rush to solve the mystery before the treasure hidden there is lost forever!

Is there really a clockwork man running out of control in the city? Is the park an escape or a trap? And what do the holly leaves mean? Realistic details of an exotic place bring readers deep into this exciting tale’s many twists and turns with Guiseppe, Hannah, and Frederick. (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com) Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.