This is a very clever novel and I loved the characters of Maisie and Laurent. There is mystery, intrigue, romance and perseverance all set at the beginning of the 20th century. Very enjoyable.

This is the story of a young woman from an orphanage in England who ends up living on a wealthy Chicago estate in the early 20th century. It's a broad and complex story with a mystery at its heart that revolves around a sinister carousel.

The writing is pacy and draws you in and I liked the complexity of the story. There's elements of mystery, romance and an underlying theme of racism that worked well

A very enjoyable, high quality, well-written novel.
A carousel becomes the binding ingredient of a mystery and crime story spanning years and characters.
We start of with a well-described unresolved crime, then move on to more emotional focus on other characters, such as Maisie. a girl with a bad fate. who writes her own fate later.
I will surely revisit this again for the story and writing.

I was a little underwhelmed by the opening of‘The Midnight Carousel’ as it introduced us to a grief stricken Gilbert putting the finishing touches to his finest creation. Thankfully the focus quickly shifted to Maisie Marlowe, a plucky orphan struggling against the odds to eke out a meagre existence for herself and her best friend Tommy.
Maisie’s fortunes fluctuate wildly as we plot her progress in England, America and France. She never loses her kind, indomitable spirit and the reader shares in her joys and disappointments. The eponymous carousel lends a degree of mystery to the plot, but this is Maisie’s story and is all the better for it.

In turn-of-the-century Paris, Gilbert Cloutier builds his final carousel. Devastated by the death of his wife and son, this is his last act before his disappearance.

Fourteen years later, his nephew Victor is guillotined for the crime of Gilbert’s murder, and the disappearance of three others, including two little girls. Detective Laurent Bisset has closed the case – but is still haunted by the missing bodies.

In the meantime, orphan Maisie Marlowe is rescued from poverty by her aunt and her benefactor Sir Malcolm, eventually finding herself running Silver Kingdom amusement park in Chicago.

However, after two children disappear from Silver Kingdom, from the very same Cloutier carousel, Laurent and Maisie must solve the decades long mystery.

A beautifully crafted historical novel intertwined with a compelling and clever mystery that captivated me until the end.

Maisie is a child abandoned to the care of a cruel family in Canvey Island. She lives a very hard life until she is one day rescued by her aunt.
We follow the ups and downs of Maisie’s fortunes in England in the early 1900s, and in America. Entwined with her life is an amazing mechanical carousel, first seen as a picture, then the real thing, which is almost a characters in its own right.
Laurent is a French detective who is investigating mysterious disappearances of people connected with the carousel, and his and Maisie’s paths cross.
Their story, and that of the mystery of the carousel, set against an American fairground is a compelling read, but I was hoping for a little more fantasy and magic.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read this book.

So the carousel was built for the festival or exhibition in Paris as they called it then to welcome 20th century into its birth. Year or whatever the expression is.

The 1st few chapters give us some history some family info of one of the horses creatures and context then the story launches and will send you into various directions and emotions. There are plenty of twists and a variety of characters all from yonder years that seem strange to us but genuine for the eras covered, and both continents though must characters are European. There is an unforgettable mixture of backgrounds that come together in unexpected ways and make for a wonderful journey.

So my take on this is a wonderful read that takes you back to years well before I was born and so a welcome escape from the present times. There is intrigue a whodunit or how did they do it, the ending is very clever and will give you some questions to keep you carring on thinking, or I should say it did me. All this was in a way I loved. So I highly recommend this and hope you enjoy it a lot as I did. Its a wonderful read.

I am incredibly grateful to both NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for the opportunity to read and review The Midnight Carousel. Being selected to explore this captivating story before its official release has been such a treat, and I can’t wait to share my thoughts on it with all of you. A huge thank you to the teams at NetGalley and Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House for their generosity and for making this advanced reading experience possible.

Paris, 1900

Celebrated carousel-maker Gilbert works night and day to finish his masterpiece in time for the city's Exposition Universelle. But Gilbert is struggling in the wake of his wife and son's tragic deaths, and as he finalises his creation, a dangerous idea forms in his mind...

Chicago, 1920

Maisie Marlowe has come to America in the search of a new life. When she unearths a beautiful, neglected old carousel, she seizes the opportunity to carve a thrilling new destiny for herself. But Maisie doesn't know that beneath its glittering facade, the carousel is hiding a dark secret. Twenty years ago, it was linked to a number of people inexplicably vanishing into thin air - and now history has begun to repeat itself...

This is THE author to watch! Wow! I do not know how she's going to match let alone top The Midnight Carousel. It gave me all the vibes that The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern did. I was so utterly immersed in the world that Fiza created.

This book just has so many different aspects that I love. The mystery itself was interesting and kept me wanting to know more. In my spare time whilst not actively reading the book I was conjuring up different conclusions to the mystery, it had me hooked.

The characters are everything. There was development all around which was great to see. Even the minor characters had stuff going on. I am quite literally obsessed with Maisie and also Laurent.

I genuinely do not have a bad word to say about this book. The mystery was intriguing, the characters were wonderful and the pace was perfect. Going a little deeper into the pace, it wasn't so slow to the point where you become bored but it's also not too fast so that you speed by everything and it's over before you know it. This book took it's time but not unnecessarily. The descriptiveness was beautiful but absolutely needed to create this universe. Sometimes I find that authors can be descriptive for the sake of it and not because the story calls for it.

This is an absolute work of art. I cannot wait for the rest of the world to find themselves immersed in this story.

Fiza, I hope you are proud of yourself. You have every right to be, this is a beautiful book.

I am still baffled as to how this is someone's debut novel, it is simply amazing.

A wonderful historical fiction read with added mystery and magical, superstition elements. A story of love, life, loss and grief, spanning decades moving from 1900 in Paris to England, then 1920s Chicago with Maisie as our main heroine. Central to the story is a beautiful, enchanting carousel with a mystery. Several people go missing whilst riding the carousel. What is happening to them? I loved the writing, maisie was a wonderful, strong, resourceful character who was a joy to spend time with. Also, some wonderful side characters, too, such as Laurent, Mrs. Papadopolous, Arnold and madame Rose. Some sad and emotional scenes towards the end and some outcomes I didn't expect. I'm so glad I read it, and I will certainly watch out for more of this new authors works in the future.

I was expecting something a little darker with this, or a little bit more magical.
It had a touch of both, but not quite enough I felt.
At times it was just the domestic life of Maisie.
To be honest if that's how the book was sold in the blurb, it's a decent read. There are plenty of ups and downs to contend with.
Maisie is a character you can really want to succeed.

Oh wow "The Midnight Carousel" by Fiza Saeed McLynn is right up my street. Historical fiction with a magical mystery twist, it is similar to the writings of Carlos Ruiz Zafon and Robert Dinsdale. Set in Paris at the end of the 19th Century, Gilbert is on a deadline to finish off the carousel for the great Paris Exhibition of 1900. Unfortunately illness wipes out his family but he dedicates one of the horses to his son Theo. Skip forward a few years and we are in Canvey Island, England. From there we see how Gilbert, his carousel and Maisie are linked, in England and later in the US. A fabulous book for anyone who is looking for a glimpse of childhood, escapism and a good mystery.