The year is 1893, and airships cloud the skies over the bustling metropolis of Toronto. The city is set to host the world's fair thanks in no small part to the work of two fantastical inventors. The New World Exhibition is to be a celebration of cultural and technological marvels; roving automatons, clockwork contraptions, the world's biggest steam-powered paddle boat, all to be fully lit by the wonder of electricity!

On the day of the grand opening, young Norwood Quigley, aspiring journalist, photographer and scion of a world-famous airship magnate, stumbles onto the scene of a murder; the victim: a Prussian Ambassador; the perpetrator: a Chinese assassin, or so the powers-that-be say. In truth, the suspect is Jing, a roguish but amiable youthful delinquent.

Concerned by Jing's claim of innocence and his assumed guilt by higher powers, including the British Empire's military, Norwood is thrown into a grand intrigue that hinges on Toronto's world fair. As chaos consumes the celebrations, he fears that his influential family is being manipulated in a plot to create an international incident that will lead to a war that spans the world.

MJ Lyons is a writer, journalist and game maker. Covering arts and culture, he has written for dozens of publications, and penned a five-year-long column with a colleague on lesser known LGBT history, History Boys, for Xtra, Canada's national queer news source. Recently he has contributed writing to game projects including LongStory, a LGBT-positive dating sim for young people, and The Last Taxi, a dystopian resource management VR game. He has contributed stories to Shousetsu Bang*Bang, a webzine for original gay fiction and boys' love stories, and published his short story "To kill a god" in Twopenny Books' Clockwork Cairo anthology. He lives in Toronto with his goblin of a cat.

M.J. Lyons' profile page

• Nominated, Prix Aurora Awards

"A nimble, inventive steampunk romp - complete with clockwork cats, daring escapes, beguiling romance and shadowy mysteries - that you'll rip through in one sitting and beg for the next." - Matthew Bright, author of The Library of Lost Things

"I lost track of the boxes this novel checked for me. Alternate reality? Set at the turn of the 19th century? During a World's Fair? With a murder mystery; clockwork monsters; a wonderfully genuine and familiar family dynamic; and romance? Pair all that with beautiful and evocative writing, and you've got a stunning debut. I cannot wait to see what MJ Lyons dreams up next." -KD Edwards, author of the The Last Sun and The Hanged Man