The Clockwork Conspiracy - Sam Sedgman

Isaac lives with his father Diggory (Chief Horologist in charge of Big Ben) in London and the book opens on the night the clocks go back, with the pair in the belfry of Big Ben where they are preparing to stop the clock so it can be reset to the correct time.  Whilst there, they are discussing the controversial New Time Law that is due to be debated in Parliament, a law that will see time changed in a similar way to decimalisation (ten hours in the day, one hundred minutes in an hour, one hundred seconds in a minute).  However, when Isaac's dad goes to investigate a problem with one of the quarter bells and doesn't return, Isaac becomes worried and informs a security guard who calls the Speaker of the House, Sol Bassala, known as Uncle Sol to Isaac.  The police are called to investigate and Isaac goes to stay with Uncle Sol in his residence within the Palace of Westminster where he meets Sol's daughter, Hattie.  Soon, Isaac confides to Hattie that he found a broken watch in the belfry which belongs to his father.  When the pair realise that the watch holds a cryptic message, one that could help them find Diggory, they determine to find him.  The clues take them on a race through London, one that becomes increasingly more dangerous the more they discover; in fact it's not just Diggory who is in danger, but time itself, but can Isaac and Hattie save the day before it's too late?

Isaac and his dad are close; that is evident from the very beginning of the book, so when Diggory goes missing, Isaac is understandably devastated but he certainly isn't about to just sit around and wait for the police to investigate.  We see Isaac's logical mind spin into action and his years as a young inventor pay off.  He and Hattie make a great pairing; where he is logical, she is not afraid to take risks.  She is the one who loves to sneak out and uses these skills to help the pair ensure that their investigation continues.  It isn't long before the pair become good friends, determined to look out for each other as well as ensure that the right thing is done.   

One of the main themes in the book is time and, as the book progresses, there are some incredibly thought-provoking questions raised.  We all know time as 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day; it's a universally known measure.  But what if that changed?  How would it alter things?  I began wondering this as I read, but as the book soon shows, everything is linked to time and if you change that, everything falls apart.  Reading the book made me realise just exactly how dependent on and ruled by time we are.  It was a fascinating concept for a book and I can imagine it will provoke hugely interesting discussions in school. 

At its heart, The Clockwork Conspiracy is a whirlwind of an adventure that will sweep you up in its arms and will carry you away.  It's a gripping page-turner of a book that will ensure you forget about what time it is as you race across London in the pursuit of saving time.  I began reading this on Friday evening and devoured it in under a day (would that be just over 2 days under the New Time Law?!).  I read part of it on Saturday morning whilst playing Mum-taxi and the hour has never gone quicker - I got quite the fright when my son opened the car door!  I loved the Adventures on Trains series that Sam wrote with MG Leonard so I had high hopes for this - I can tell you now that the book far exceeded those hopes and now I'm just crossing everything that there will be more to come from Isaac and Hattie in the future.  Publishing on the 1st February, The Clockwork Conspiracy is a book that needs to be pre-ordered.