Gears and Claws: A Claws Series Mystery: Book 1

By Julian Mercer

In a city of steam and secrets, the truth is the most dangerous invention of all.

In the smog-choked metropolis of Cogsworth, animals walk on two legs and steam powers the empire. Baxter Reynard, a brilliant but cynical Red Fox detective, prefers the company of machines to the deceit of society. His only partner is Click, a sentient mechanical beetle capable of cracking the toughest Babbage engines.

Business is dead until Lady Genevieve Gilt, heiress to a steam-shipping fortune, walks into his cluttered workshop. Her father's death has been ruled a suicide by the incompetent police, but the locked-room mystery reeks of foul play. Baxter knows a sealed vault doesn't keep death out-it keeps the secrets in.

As Baxter peels back the layers of Cogsworth's gilded corruption, he uncovers Project Simulacrum, a conspiracy led by the shadowy 'Clockmaker.' The plan? To replace the city's leaders with indistinguishable biological automatons.

From the grime of the Slagside industrial district to the high-pressure stakes of the aristocracy, Baxter and Click must wind up the case before their own time runs out.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GLXWN1MG
• ISBN13: 9798247043270
• Release Date: February 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 1.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 9.0"