I was attracted by the cover and title of the book. I also found the description inviting enough to want to read the book. Abel Cloudesley, knowing his son to be well-cared for takes on a dangerous job in Constantinople, which is going to change his life and that of his son.

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley - Bookerworm Book Reviews The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley - Bookerworm Book Reviews

But then a near-fatal accident will take Zachary away from the workshop and his family. His father will have to make a journey to Constantinople that he will never return from. And, years later, only Zachary can find out what happened. Please feel free to leave a comment to this book review below. Or even leave your own review if you like. Zachary was a wonderful character, (as was Abel), but I didn't think he shone as much as I was hoping.The prose is very well written, and it is genuinely funny, but the plot wasn't strong enough to hold attention. The father-son relationship is one of the book's strongest features, and I very much felt for Abel's plight. His father will have to make a journey to Constantinople that he will never return from" which is not entirely true and doesn't happen until just over the halfway point in the book. "And, years later, only Zachary can find out what happened." but the readers find out well before Zachary does. This beautiful novel with a touch of magic, well-developed characters and set in the 18th century England and Constantinople was a real treat for me. Zachary, a motherless boy receives all love he can have from those who surround him and develops an amazing gift that is not always a blessing. I think the characterisation was good as regards Zachary, Aunt Francis, Mrs Morley and Tom, but throughout it all, the idea of Zachary displaying powers of second sight seemed to be lost along the way. Yes, there were really good descriptions of Turkey, the landscape, political structures and warring factions along the way. However, underneath it all seemed to run a story of same sex love and commitment which, honestly, I wonder for its inclusion.

The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk book The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk book

The writing style takes some getting used to, and it wasn't a book I could read when I was tired! But I loved the writing, as it comes through as extremely authentic from the time. Zachary is a gifted, brilliant little boy, the kind of child who will read anything he can find and probably remember most of it. The publicity for the story reveals that Zachary later loses the sight in one eye and develops a kind of clairvoyance, although he never seems quite certain what is true or not. The blurb sounded fabulous, and whilst there is an enjoyable introduction to him, I did find myself getting a little impatient waiting for the main premise of the story to come through.This is a wonderful book. It starts with a beautiful cover, and only gets better. The premise of the story is reasonably straightforward, but with the added layer of second sight it gets really interesting. Lusk's writing style is great, conveying plenty of details without becoming slow and hard to read. The characters are fascinating too as well as all the outputs from the workshop. I enjoyed Abel's portion of the book, and wished we stayed with him more, but found, despite being the titular character, I didn't much like Zachary, and, as other reviewers have mentioned, his "second sight" wasn't capitalised. The other characters were not entirely likeable either, and at 76%, I am still left unsure about Mrs Morely and Lady Peake-Barnes. As Zachary grows it is clear there is something out of the orginary about him, not least his abiltity to see into the future and the past. I cannot believe I am telling you of it now, but to convince you that Zachary is remarkable, gifted in ways even the child himself cannot perceive.’