Curious toys : a novel /

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

An intrepid young woman stalks a murderer through turn-of-the-century Chicago in "this rich, spooky, and atmospheric thriller that will appeal to fans of Henry Darger and Erik Larson alike" (Sarah McCarry).

In the sweltering summer of 1915, Pin, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a carnival fortune-teller, dresses as a boy and joins a teenage gang that roams the famous Riverview amusement park, looking for trouble.

Unbeknownst to the well-heeled city-dwellers and visitors who come to enjoy the midway, the park is also host to a ruthless killer who uses the shadows of the dark carnival attractions to conduct his crimes. When Pin sees a man enter the Hell Gate ride with a young girl, and emerge alone, she knows that something horrific has occurred.

The crime will lead her to the iconic outsider artist Henry Darger, a brilliant but seemingly mad man. Together, the two navigate the seedy underbelly of a changing city to uncover a murderer few even know to look for.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Two years ago, Pin's mother put her in boy's clothes so she would be "safe." Now 14 and still in disguise, Pin lives with her fortune-teller mother on the edge of Chicago's Riverview Amusement Park. She hangs out with a gang of boys and runs reefers from a sideshow performer to a screenwriter at Essanay movie studios. During the hot summer of 1915, she witnesses a man and a young girl enter the Hell Gate ride--but only he exits. Pin questions what she sees, but another observer, "batty" outsider artist Henry Darger, saw the same thing. Initially wary, the two work together to catch a twisted killer. Genre-spanning, award-winning Hand ("Cass Neary" series) once again works the dark side of the street, writing from multiple points of view and skillfully misdirecting readers' attention. The historical details are fantastic, as are several cameos by real-life figures besides Darger. When readers reach the end of this thrilling adventure, they'll see how every choice has been perfectly made. VERDICT Hand is a mage of the page. The gritty mise-en-scène and realistically portrayed characters in her novel will enchant those who like tough-girl protagonists and antiheroes, as well as fans of historical crime fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 3/25/19.]--Liz French, Library Journal

Publishers Weekly Review

Spunky 14-year-old Pin, the heroine of this atmospheric crime novel from Shirley Jackson Award--winner Hand (Hard Light) set in early 20th-century Chicago, struggles to survive with her single mother, the fortune-teller at the Riverview Amusement Park, whose patrons try to temporarily forget such grim realities as grime-belching industrial furnaces, squalid tenements, and murderous gangs. The scrawny Pin disguises herself as a boy both for safety and to give her the freedom to earn money running errands. Her favorite is delivering drugs from Max, the park's "She-Male," to customers at the Essanay movie studio, a world that fascinates her. But darker forces intrude when the teen, who finds passing as a boy liberating, discovers a murdered girl inside the Hell Gate ride. Her efforts to track down the killer, with the help of "dingbatty" real-life outsider artist Henry Darger, put her in peril. Though Hand's attempts to establish multiple viable suspects, all with disturbing, if confusing, psychological histories, muddy the narrative, this remains a phantasmagoric time trip tailor-made for fans of The Devil in the White City. Agent: Martha Millard, Martha Millard Literary. (Oct.)

Booklist Review

It's 1915, and a serial killer is preying on young girls in Chicago, flying under the radar as the Black Hand gang dominates headlines and police attention. After Vivian's younger sister disappears, the 14-year-old Vivian and her mother move near Chicago's Riverview amusement park, where her mother becomes a fortune-teller. Vivian, reinvented for her own safety as a boy named Pin, earns money by delivering reefer for Max, the park's popular he/she attraction. Heading back from a drop one afternoon, Pin spots a man entering the boat ride with a young girl she recognizes, and later exiting alone. Curious, Pin searches the ride's horror-themed features and finds the girl's body. While the police rush to build a case against Clyde, the ride's African American feature act, Pin traces the killer back to Riverview and realizes she's hunting the man who took her sister. Hand expertly plays the excitement of Chicago's burgeoning entertainment industry against the killer's unsettling obsession with dolls, twisting the story even darker by pairing Pin with Henry Darger, a freshly released psychiatric patient who claims he's on a mission to save Chicago's girls. A well-crafted and deliciously unsettling period thriller that will find fans among those who enjoy Caleb Carr's mix of early modern technology and investigative action.--Christine Tran Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Book Review

Chicago, 1915: In the midst of a steamy summer, a rash of child murders terrifies the city in Hand's (Hard Light, 2016, etc.) latest.After her younger sister went missing, 14-year-old Pin's mother, the carnival fortuneteller, told her to dress like a boy, so now she runs free through the park, delivering drugs, sneaking into rides, and hoping for a chance to see Glory, a local movie actress. But most of all she enjoys the chance to observe the chaotic scene of the carnival. One day, she notices a man and a young girl in line for the Hell Gate, a notorious "love boat" rideonly the man emerges alone from the other side of the tunnel. Girls go missing all the time in Chicago, but Pin's suspicions are piqued, and when she discovers the girl's naked body floating in the waters of the ride, all hell breaks loose. As the carnival policeman, Francis Bacon, conducts an investigation along with the local cops, Pin encounters help of her own in the form of Henry Darger, clearly a fictionalized version of the real reclusive artist. Here, he is a strange and troubled man who lives at the hospital and calls himself a "general of the Gemini," purporting to protect and rescue girls in trouble. To call the novel and its characters "colorful" is a terrific understatement. A carnival setting immediately allows for a higher threshold of the bizarre, but Hand skillfully develops each character beyond mere oddity or empty sensation. Even Charlie Chaplin gets a cameo, though it's far from flattering. Dr. H.H. Holmes is a ghostly presence within the novel, invoked by several characters; this comparison to another Chicago murderer serves to deepen context. While Henry and his occasional moments of narration take a little getting used to, the wordplay and imagination that qualify his chapters become more and more appealing. Most of all, Pin is an engaging, courageous heroine, and her musings on gender identity are both poignant and relevant.Richly imaginative and psychologically complex. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Elizabeth Hand is the author of more than fourteen cross-genre novels and collections of short fiction. Her work has received the Shirley Jackson Award (three times), the World Fantasy Award (four times), the Nebula Award (twice), as well as the James M. Tiptree Jr. and Mythopoeic Society Awards. She's a longtime critic and contributor of essays for the Washington Post , Los Angeles Times , Salon , Boston Review , and the Village Voice , among many others. She divides her time between the Maine coast and North London.