Literary fiction might not be the first place you would expect to find engineers, scientists and inventors but there plenty of authors who use the socket set and soldering iron fraternity in their novels… and in exciting ways, too.

There’s the body-bodging Dr Frankenstein and the epoch jumping genius in H G Wells’ The Time Machine. But what about modern books – where are the inventively-inclined in contemporary literature? All over the place, that’s where.

One just example comes from author Daniel Handler, who wrote a 13-book collection called ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, under the pseudonym of Lemony Snicket, all about young engineer Violet Baudelaire and her siblings.

The series follows the misadventures of the three children, Violet, Klaus and Sunny, who are orphaned when their parents die in a fire at the family mansion. The children go from adventure to adventure as they are chased by their evil uncle Count Olaf, who’s set on getting his grip on the family fortune by any means necessary.

Each of the children has a specific skill that helps them escape from the Count’s clutches during their trials and tribulations, and Violet’s is to invent. Wise beyond her years, she can build a miniature helicopter out of an egg beater and some old copper wire, and even construct a device for making staples from a fork, a few teaspoons of creamed spinach and a small potato. Whatever the dire situation calls for, Violet ties up her hair with a ribbon and gets her hands dirty, just as any young engineer should. Her tech skills often saves the children from some sticky situations, and you’ll find her invent something miraculous at least once, in each of the stories.

Appealing to both adults and children, the series stands out for its dark and doomy tone. Snicket consistently reminds readers to put the book down if they want to read a happy tale as nothing good ever happens to the children. For this reason it was banned from many schools – and even entire US towns.

In a sense it’s like reading an episode of Lost: with every book the backstory grows and grows as you’re given titbits of information about the children’s parents, secret society’s and also Lemony Snicket’s own involvement in the orphans’ lives.

Intriguing, exciting and foreboding, this is a great series to read to children, grandchildren, or just to yourself on a quiet Sunday afternoon. It might also bring back to life your inner inventor. You egg whisk may never seem the same again…