I loved The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, where we first met Thaniel Steepleton, an unassuming young man, and Keita Mori, the talented watchmaker who remembers the future. I started this sequel with anticipation.

Five years after the events of Filigree Street, Thaniel has landed a job at the British Legation in Tokyo as an interpreter, and Mori has family business that takes him home. Despite living a simple life in London, Mori is a member of an ancient and wealthy Samurai family, and Thaniel is astonished to find he not only lives in a sprawling compound, but he is married.

When Thaniel reports for work, he is advised that the local staff are refusing to do anything as the Legation building is full of ghosts. He is instructed to ensure the staff stop this nonsense, but he has little success, and begins to see them himself. Mori seems uncharacteristically frightened and then disappears from the scene, perhaps abducted. War with Russia is on the horizon, electrical storms are causing fires in Tokyo and, following a cryptic request from Mori, Pepperharrow travels to northernmost frozen Japan, to try and solve an ill-defined mystery in a prison.

This is a complex story, but the lyrical nature of the writing kept me absolutely enthralled. You will need to have read the first book to understand the characters, but it is worth the effort. Time, destiny and love collide to literally electrifying effect, and you are left with a deeply satisfying journey.

Reviewed by Lesley West