As historical fiction is one of my favourite genres, my expectations from such books is always high. That’s one main reason this one fizzled out for me. It doesn’t match up to the standard set by other books in the WWII fiction category.

Story:
“The Clockmaker’s Wife” is a dual timeline narrative written in third person.

1940 – London – Nell
The Blitz has just begun, forcing Nell Spellman to leave her husband Arthur behind in London while she escapes with her baby to a safer place. But when her husband mysteriously disappears, she is forced to return to the capital in the hope of discovering what happened. Will she be able to save Arthur and reunite her family?

2021 – New York – Ellie
When she discovers a watch belong to her long-deceased grandmother, Ellie starts researching more into her life. But she discovers a dark secret and regrets her decision to go digging into the past. Should she let things lie or try to find out the truth?

The dual storyline is a pretty common trope nowadays in WWII historical fiction so it loses its edge unless the timelines are used to full advantage. Doesn’t happen in this book. Everything is as predictable as a weather forecast going wrong.

This is primarily a character-oriented book, so when the characters themselves fail to impress you, there’s not much left to salvage. I couldn’t connect to any character. Both the female leads begin as short-sighted and selfish. Nell redeems herself towards the last quarter of her narrative. Ellie remains almost the same throughout. There is also the mandatory superfluous romance in Ellie’s narrative, not essential to the plot at all.


There are also many illogical bits in the plot:
○ Ellie assumes that her grandmother is a fascist just because of a Nazi propaganda pamphlet discovered in their possessions. By that logic, I am a fascist too because I own a copy of “Mein Kampf”. It was a silly plot idea.
○ Ellie is supposed to be 38 and an independent businesswoman yet she doesn’t consider planning her visit to London properly. She doesn’t research anything she needs to find out but dives in there blind, dependent on local help and not even using Google well.
○ Ellie is supposed to be struggling financially. How on earth did she manage to buy a plane ticket for London at the very last minute, that too during the Christmas vacations when the fare is bound to be higher?


The most irritating thing for me was the ample amount of data thrown into the narrative. You know how students sometimes end up copy-pasting every single bit of information they find on their project topic in the hopes of impressing their teacher? It felt just like that. There is a lot of information overload, and worse… the data is told, not shown. Really amateur writing, there.

The historical storyline is much more interesting than the contemporary one. But not necessarily better. The second half of the book is much better than the first half, but it doesn’t help save the book, only helps you to marginally improve your rating.

Overall, the concept might have been good at first. But it lost its essence amid the unlikeable characters and humdrum storyline. This is a book that works in bits and pieces but doesn’t come together to form a cohesive whole. Of course, this is just my opinion, and an unpopular one at that! The other ratings show that a majority of readers have enjoyed reading it. So give it a try. You never know. As they say, not every reader reads the same book.

Narrator Sophie Bentinck does a good job of bringing the characters alive. Her voice makes the 11.5 hrs audiobook go by smoothly.

Thank you, NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio, for the audio ARC of the book in exchange for an honest review.




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iThe story starts like many books of this genre, following the successful formula. The chapters flip between two time zones, 1939-40 and 2022 following the female line of Ellie who is living in American 2022. Her mother Alice is now in a nursing home and getting confused about things from her past. Her grandmother Nell, who lived at the time of the London Blitz was sadly killed by a bomb on New Years Eve 1940. At that time Alice was only 9 months old and knows nothing of what really happened. Ellie decides to go to London and see what she can find out. Her only contact is her estranged Aunt Gillian. Once in London the story picks up some pace and takes a new turn. There are slowly emerging details of a secret plot that, had it been successful, could have changed the outcome of the war. It certainly changed things for Nell. Although this isn’t a great read, I thought it was a good one. Totally fictional but quite plausible. I liked some of the secondary characters best and would have enjoyed having them more involved in the narrative. ( )

Enjoyable

Was a slow start, but once it started getting better I didn’t want to put it down! Definitely recommend it.

This book brings to life a time when emotions were high and hidden during WWII with the common folks. Many that survived were unable to talk about it afterwards to avoid reliving these treacherous times.

An elderly mother said to her daughter, "When I was growing up, nobody expected to be happy -- you just had to get on with things and make the best of them. After the war, we were grateful to be alive."

Prayer kept people going in the book. It gave them hope. Every evening in London at 9:00, Big Ben alerted people that it was time to pray for peace. It was the Great Clock at the Palace of Westminster. It was what they relied upon to keep going one more day.

But this isn't just a book about the war. It is two love stories with two timelines.

Ellie is in her late 30s in the present time and while she's had a successful career with good friends, she never has been able to make a love relationship work. She is the daughter of Alice who is in a nursing home with memory relapses and health issues. Her mother reveals to her the location of a hidden box with keepsakes in her home. Of course, it peaks Elli's curiosity when she discovers the treasures which sends her on a trip to London to search for more clues about her ancestors.

Alice's parents are Nell and Arthur. It was her father that maintained Big Ben in the 1940s with two other clockmakers. Nell disappointed her father by falling for Arthur - a German and he was half Jewish. Yet, her love was incredibly strong putting her in challenging positions.

This historical fiction gives the reader a glimpse of ordinary people during the war struggling each day. Women for the first time stepped out of their traditional roles to help out giving them a greater sense of freedom. The images and characters were well developed in my mind and I enjoyed learning more about this time period.

My thanks to Daisy Wood, Harper Collins Publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this advanced copy to be released on July 8, 2021. ( )

Historical fiction is one of my favourite genres but I couldn't get into this one. Like so many novels in this genre, there were dual timelines (a past and a present) and as usual, I preferred the historical one, although neither protagonist really impressed me. They lacked substance and were often irritating. What I enjoyed the most was all the interesting facts about Big Ben but otherwise a mediocre read. ( )