Laura Amy Schlitz's Newbery Honor-winning Victorian gothic is a rich banquet of dark comedy, scorching magic, and bewitching storytelling. Clara Wintermute, the only child of a wealthy doctor, invites master puppeteer Grisini to entertain at her birthday party. When Clara vanishes that night, suspicion falls upon the puppeteer and his orphaned assistants. The three children -- two penniless waifs and one pampered heiress -- have been caught in a trap set by Grisini's ancient rival, a witch with a deadly inheritance she's determined to shed before it's too late.