What readers think of Curious Toys, plus links to write your own review.

All the elements that I like - some characters based on real live people, takes place in the early 1900's, a little bit of a mystery, and set in an amusement park.

The protagonist is Pin, a young girl, who dresses as a boy (not a spoiler) and roams the midway while her mother tells fortunes. After a crime is committed in one of the attractions, it becomes known that there is a killer on the loose. Pin gets fully entangled in the investigation trying to track down the infamous child killer.

This book had a lot of early 1900 inventions. Lots to do with the cinema and carnival life. It mentions a number of then current movie actors, such as Charlie Chaplin. It highlights the slums of an early Chicago, along with the bias of class distinctions and how the police department discriminated, but all told within the story format.

One character was based on a true to life person and he became a central character in the story. There was a two page follow up on the real life of this person and also a number of books referring to him in the Bibliography.

I did enjoy this book, however I also felt that the mystery portion of this book could have been a bit stronger, given that the author is a well established writer.