Coming Up in 2013: Haunted by William Hussey (and exclusive cover reveal)

Back in January I ran my annual 'Coming Up In...' feature. At the time, Witchfinder author William Hussey expressed an interest in taking part, but he really wanted to wait until the book cover had been finalised by the lovely people at OUP. Naturally, as a lover of William's Witchfinder series, I was desperate to find out more about his new book, Haunted, and so I have been waiting patiently for the moment to arrive. 

And now it is here, and not only do I have the honour of hosting a fantastic guest post by William, but also the very first public reveal of the book cover for Haunted (so remember where you saw it first). It is a little different from most of the YA covers around at the moment, and I totally love it! Rohan Eason's illustrations are so incredibly spooky, and I could stare at the image for hours (and as the book isn't due to be published until September I'm just going to have to make do with this for the next few months). Make sure you click on the pictures to view the images in all their big sized glory.

And now, over to William:

After completing the Witchfinder trilogy, I was really keen for a new storytelling challenge. Witchfinder had been pretty epic: a story that spanned over a quarter of a million words, virtually every monster in the mythical bestiary, and a timeline that started a moment or two after the Big Bang and reached right up to the present day (by way of the Stone Age and the English Civil War!). Now I wanted to write a story with a tighter focus, a tale that concentrated on a few characters over the course of a week.

A week in which a huge, heart-stopping supernatural drama would be played out…

I’m a great believer that writers should always be challenged by their next project. They ought to step into those early pages of a new book with their hearts lodged firmly in their mouths. ‘Can I really do this?’, ‘Am I good enough to pull it off?’ Those questions should forever be ringing in the writer’s mind.

With HAUNTED I set myself two formidable (for me, at least!) challenges. First, I would tell the tale from the point of view of a sixteen-year-old girl. Up until this point, I’d always written my books from a boy’s perspective; could I really capture an authentic voice for a teenage girl? As I got deeper into the story, I began to realise that I shouldn’t always be conscious of the gender of my hero, Emma Rhodes. What did I know about this character? She was clever, strong-willed, determined, resourceful, grieving, robust and yet sensitive, especially to cruelty and injustice. Those were the things that mattered about her, and they were characteristics I admired and felt able to convey.

At this point I should tell you a little about the story:

Emma Rhodes begins the book in a state of complete isolation. Some months ago, her little brother Richie died while in her care. Since that day Emma has been haunted by grief and guilt, a state which has driven her friends away and left her fragile and alone. Into this lonely world comes a mysterious American – a teenager who moves into the derelict Sparrow House across the street. His arrival changes everything. Shrouded in mystery, he begins to draw Emma out of her isolation by revealing to her a shocking truth. Someone in the little town of Milton Lake is using the fabled ‘Ghost Machine’ to call the spirits of the dead back to our world. Now it is up to these two lost souls to find out who is operating this strange invention before it is too late. For call by call, the hungry dead will be unleashed…

My second challenge was to introduce a ‘celebrity historical cameo’ into the book. The Ghost Machine is an antique telephone from the 1920s, its crackling line a pathway to the world of the ravenous dead. But here’s the thing: the Ghost Machine is based on a true story.

Thomas Edison

In 1920 the world-famous inventor Thomas Edison – the man who developed the light bulb, the movie camera, the telephone and the record player – claimed to the world’s press that he was on the verge of inventing a phone for speaking with the dead! No kidding, he really did! After his death ten years later it was thought that Edison had been pulling one of his famous pranks on a bunch of gullible journalists… but what if he’d been telling the truth?

Why would Edison have covered up such a fabulous invention? What might have caused him such mortal terror that he hid the device from the world? And what if the Ghost Machine was still out there, waiting for some desperate soul to start making calls on it again?

Once I’d hit upon the idea of the Ghost Machine in a modern setting (with Emma battling to discover its whereabouts before it tore her world apart), I knew that Thomas Edison himself must feature in the story. What followed is essential for any writer hoping to recreate a historical setting and personality: LOADS of research. I read four HUGE biographies on Edison, as well as several books on the development of early telephones. Once I’d absorbed all my notes, I was ready to write the chapters in which Edison revisited his famous Menlo Park laboratory and, at dead of night, began his experiments with the Ghost Machine.

Research helped to make this ‘character’ seem real to the reader. I had to recreate the way the Great Man spoke, how he moved, how he thought, how he listened (tricky as Edison was almost stone deaf!). I had set myself this challenge before when writing Witchfinder: Gallows at Twilight, which featured the real historical character of Matthew Hopkins, the Witchfinder General. But in that case I was helped by the fact that very little is known about Hopkins, and so I could create the character pretty much as I wanted him. With Edison, I felt a huge amount of pressure to get the real man down on the page as faithfully as I could.

Of course, the real Edison never experienced a night of supernatural terrors, as he does in HAUNTED, but I had to know enough about him as a character – his history, his family, his strengths and prejudices – to make the scene seem as genuine as I could, both for readers who had no clue about the historical Edison and for those who knew his life inside out. It was a terrifying challenge, but one I absolutely relished!

So what more can I tell you about HAUNTED? Well, here are a few teasers: we have a Circle of very unlikely and very ruthless necromancers (or ‘conjurers of the dead’); a haunted house once owned by a mass murderer; a deserted theme park in which a decidedly grisly ghost decides to manifest; a troubled boy with a secret so surprising it will (hopefully!) take your breath away; a hero who faces her grief and terror only to discover one devastating revelation after another; a school library like no other; an antique shop harbouring the most terrifying wonders the world has ever seen; a collector of bric-a-brac who will chill the very marrow of your bones; a mystery that goes to the heart of Emma Rhodes and blurs the line between the worlds of the living and the dead; and a nerve-shredding finale so spooky it made Michael Grant (of GONE fame) lose sleep!

But wait a minute…

Is that a phone ringing in the next room…? No, it’s OK, I’ll wait here.

I think it’s for you…

A note on the cover: this is the first EVER reveal of the HAUNTED cover, especially for the brilliant Book Zone. The artist is the very talented Rohan Eason, whose previous work includes The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. What we all wanted from this cover was a very stark fairy tale vibe to go with the gothic spookiness of the story. Lyrical black-and-white imagery contrasting with the red lettering fitted the bill perfectly. I love how the ghosts – or the ‘unmade’ as they are known in HAUNTED – swirl around to frame Emma as she ventures towards the Sparrow House.

A place where many dark secrets wait to be discovered…

Coming Up In 2013 #7: Lockwood & Co. by Jonathan Stroud

I have already featured some great looking books in my 'Coming Up In 2013' feature, but this one is right near the top as far as my personal sense of excited anticipation is concerned. I totally love Jonathan Stroud's Bartimaeus books, and when, at the last Random House Bloggers' Brunch, I was informed that he had written the first book in a new series, due out later in August 2013, I couldn't help but let out a delighted yelp. I am so please to welcome Jonathan to The Book Zone today, to tell us a little more about his new series, Lockwood & Co.:

Want to hear a story? Okay. Here’s how it starts. Two kids, a boy and a girl, walk up to the front door of a large house in London. It’s a late November afternoon. Fog swirls around the dark trees of the garden. The boy is tall, thin, well-dressed. He has a long, sharp sword hanging at his belt. The girl wears one too. They carry heavy bags filled with magnesium flares and iron chains. They make a few jokes as they wait on the doorstep, but they can’t conceal their tension. They’ve come to the house to deal with a dangerous ghost that lurks there, and they know they may not leave the place alive…

             That’s the beginning of The Screaming Staircase, and I wrote it a couple of years ago. Just two or three pages. Then I stopped. Why? Because I didn’t have a clue what happened next. What I DID know for sure was that I loved ghost stories, and I loved adventure stories, and I wanted to combine the two things into something great.

            Books often start like that for me – just a little scene, with lots of possibilities. The thing to do is let the idea take shape. So I let the scene sit in my head for a while until, like a dark figure slowly materialising out of the fog, the rest of the set-up came into focus. We’re in modern Britain and there’s an epidemic of ghosts. No one knows why, but more and more of them are appearing after dark, and they’re causing big trouble. Some are fairly harmless, but others are ravenously hungry for contact with the living – and if they touch you, watch out.

So who’s in the front line of the ongoing battle against the phantoms? Kids are. They’re the only ones who have the ability to clearly see (or hear) the supernatural enemy. Adults are hopeless at it. They get ghost-touched before they can figure out where the danger’s coming from. Only children are sharp-eyed and quick enough to survive.

The Screaming Staircase follows the early history of Lockwood & Co, a small, rather ramshackle Psychic Investigation Agency in London. It’s got three employees, all of them in their early teens: Anthony Lockwood (the leader), George Cubbins (his sidekick) and Lucy Carlyle, their newest recruit. They’re talented, but not so lucky, and when one of their cases ends in disaster, they have a single chance of redemption left. Unfortunately this involves spending a night in the most haunted house in England, and trying to escape alive…

Let’s face it: ghosts, scares, conspiracies, jokes, kids with big swords… Who could ask for anything more? I’ve had a lot of fun developing Lockwood’s world, and I hope you love it too when it comes out late this summer. Meanwhile, I’ve got to start writing the sequel, where things get even deeper, darker and stranger than before. The fog’s drawing in, the shadows are lengthening, and Lockwood & Co are about to step away from the light…  Stay tuned!

Coming Up In 2013 #6: Monster Odyssey: The Eye of Neptune by Jon Mayhew

I have been a big fan of Jon Mayhew's writing ever since I first read the brilliant Mortlock. This superb gothic horror story was followed by two sort-of-sequels, all set in the same Victorian world, and both of them were as good, if not better than the first book. His new book, Monster Odyssey: The Eye of Neptune, is the first in a new series and is due to be published by Bloomsbury Children's Books in May this year. It is a departure from his previous macabre Victorian setting, but I am sure will be just as good a read, and I can't wait for May to arrive. In the meantime, here's Jon to tell us a little about Monster Odyssey, in his own words:

Dakkar – son of an Indian prince and heir to the kingdom of Bundelkhand – has been expelled from the best schools in Europe. Now he’s stuck in a remote castle studying with the mysterious Count Oginski, genius inventor of a top-secret machine: the world’s first submersible.

But in a dangerous world of spies and secrecy , someone would do anything to capture Oginski’s invention. When the count is kidnapped and Dakkar left for dead, the boy escapes in the submarine. And so begins a thrilling battle facing dangerous foes – horrifying creatures of the deep, lethal giant squid, and most of all a sinister figure known as Cryptos, hell-bent on taking over the world . Can Dakkar defeat such evil without becoming a monster himself?

I’m really looking forward to launching this new story as it concerns the youth of one of literature’s most intriguing characters: Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo! A departure from the dark streets of Victorian London, this story spans the globe and I had great fun bringing the various sea monsters to life. I wanted to explore what turned Prince Dakkar into Captain Nemo but wanted to capture the action and fantasy that Verne’s imagination gave us. I also wanted to create a fairly realistic historical setting. So expect pirates, naval battles but lookout for giant squid, sharks, and monsters of the deep aplenty! 

Coming Up In 2013 #5: The Battles of Ben Kingdom: The Claws of Evil by Andrew Beasley

Put a mark in your diaries for 1st March because there's something special coming your way on that date. Thanks to the lovely people at Usborne I have already read The Claws of Evil, the first book in debut author Andrew Beasley's The Battles of Ben Kingdom series. All I will say for now is that I loved it, but please watch this space for my review coming very soon. 

If you want a little taster of The Claws of Evil then head on over to www.usborne.com/readbenkingdom where you can read the book's prologue. I now have the pleasure of handing you over to Andrew who has been kind enough to tell us a little more about his new book:

Hi to all the readers of this brilliant blog! My name is Andrew Beasley and I wanted to share with you some of the inspiration behind my new novel, The Claws of Evil.

As a boy, I fell in love with the London of Sherlock Holmes with its swirling fog and the echo of footsteps in the gaslight. It was such a rich setting for adventure that I knew I had to set my story there. One of the best things about being an author is that you get to do a lot of reading for research and while I was learning about Victorian street kids the character of Ben Kingdom almost jumped straight off the page! Immediately I had a heart for this boy who always has the best intentions and yet somehow normally manages to do the wrong thing.

The other thing you discover when you are learning about Victorian children is how hard their lives could be, and although my story is a romp, I’m sure that some readers will come away thinking about the plight of street kids. Real history informs my story, but I didn’t want it to be a history lesson and so the young people that you meet in the Battles of Ben Kingdom belong to one of two gangs – who have been secretly at war for centuries. The Watchers survive on the rooftops of the city, whilst the Legion live in a secret system of tunnels, called the Under.

Ben, being Ben, isn’t sure which side he belongs to and his life is made a whole lot more complicated by the fact that both sides believe that he is destined to be their great leader. Basically, Ben is either going to be the champion of Heaven or Hell; not much pressure there then.

I have a host of other characters that I’m keen for you to meet too. There’s Jago Moon the blind bookseller, Professor ‘Claw’ Carter, and Mother Shepherd, who the Legion call ‘The Witch Queen of Spies’. Then there’s the Weeping Man and the Feathered Men, terrible creatures with… ah, but you’ll have to find out the rest for yourself.

Keep on reading – the world needs you!

Coming Up In 2013 #4: The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch

As I mentioned the other day, there are a number of epic fantasy books for children and young adults scheduled for release in 2013, and this is the second one that I am showcasing as part of my 'Coming Up In 2013' feature. The Oathbreaker's Shadow by Amy McCulloch is a book I have been looking forward to reading for a long, long time as I first read details about it last June when Amy very kindly volunteered to work with one of my sixth formers for her A-Level graphic design project.

Today, Amy has joined us to tell us a little about The Oathbreaker's Shadow, and also reveals to us the story behind the idea. The Oathbreaker's Shadow is scheduled to be published in June by Doubleday, and I for one cannot wait to read it. And check out the stunning cover at the end of Amy's piece!


My first book – The Oathbreaker’s Shadow – is due out in June, and it’s an epic fantasy adventure set in an alternate Genghis Khan-era Mongolia, filled with bows and arrows, an enormous desert and a little bit of magic. Being the author, I find it almost impossible to compare it to anything, but if you like the Dothraki scenes in A Game of Thrones, Dune, and Avatar: The Last Airbender (that’s the Nickelodeon cartoon, not the blue-people movie) you might get close to a picture of what it’s like. But where did my idea come from? I think I’m unusual in that I can remember almost to the hour when the idea for The Oathbreaker’s Shadow first popped into my head!

It was March 23, 2006, the day before my 20th birthday. To celebrate, I was at The Lord of the Rings musical in Toronto. I was… well, excited is probably putting it mildly!

I remember sitting in the balcony before the curtain was due to rise, daydreaming as hobbits chased butterflies across the stage and through the audience. My mind was elsewhere: I was working on two essays for university, one based on Chaucer, the other on Genghis Khan’s successor Kublai Khan and the Mongol Empire. My mind was a jumble of medieval customs, both Western European and Mongolian — and although in many ways the gulfs between the two were vast and incomparable, one common thread kept jumping out at me: the emphasis placed on loyalty. In many of these societies, pledging fealty to a lord or khan or king was a normal social interaction — although whether those oaths were enforced by the romantic notions of honour and loyalty above all, or something far more practical like not losing your home or head, is another matter. In that moment, all the jumble and mixing of societies and ideas and philosophies and languages all crystallized into a single image in my mind, and I remember thinking: What if that pledge, that vow of fealty, had a physical consequence when broken? What if that consequence was a hideous scar or a haunting shadow - or both? How would that affect a person? And then my main character, Raim, sprung to life almost fully-formed: a young boy who has lived in this world, who had grown up prizing honour and loyalty above all else, and who accidentally breaks a promise. How would he handle that?

Then the curtain went up and the idea left me for three-and-a-half hours as wizards, orcs, elves and one uber-impressive Balrog took to the stage. But, like all good ideas, it stuck in my mind, waiting for me to be ready to exploit it.

I wrote the very first word of The Oathbreaker’s Shadow the next day. Almost 7 years later (!) and it’s going to be a real book, the first of a two-book series – and I can’t wait for people to delve in.

Coming Up In 2013 #3: Curse of Kings by Alex Barclay

Epic fantasy is massively popular with adult readers, but apart from books a small handful of authors, there have not been many titles in this genre for young adults in recent years. It looks as if this situation might change in 2013 though as there are a number of big fantasy titles coming from début YA and children's authors. The first one I am showcasing as part of my 'Coming Up In 2013' is  written by Alex Barclay, who to date is better known as a writer of crime novels for adults. Aimed at the 9+ age group, Curse of Kings, the first instalment in Alex's The Trials of Oland Born, is due out from HarperCollins on 31st January. Curse of Kings has been described to me as Game of Thrones for younger readers so I'm sold on it already. Come back here on Wednesday for news of another epic fantasy book coming out this year. Now I hand you over to Alex:

Curse of Kings is about finding what is hidden; hope in a ruined world, bravery in a time of fear, truth in a complex of dark myths and prophecies, adventure in a world blighted by servitude.

Oland Born is a fourteen-year-old slave to The Craven Lodge, a violent band of warriors who overthrew the noble King Micah and destroyed the once-thriving Kingdom of Decresian.

One night, in a secret room in the castle, Oland uncovers a letter with his name on it… written by the long-dead king. To Oland’s horror, it reveals that if the kingdom is to be restored, it falls to him to do so.

The King assures him that “on such young shoulders, it will prove astonishing how light this burden will be”.

But the burden appears nothing other than oppressive, when, within moments, a stranger appears in the castle and tries to take him away.

It is just the beginning of The Trials of Oland Born…”

Coming Up In 2013 #2: Oliver Fibbs: Attack of the Alien Brain by Steve Hartley

Steve Hartley's Danny Baker Record Breaker books are hugely popular with the 7+ age group, with their irresistible combination of comic style illustrations and laugh-out-loud stories. News of a new series from Steve is therefore something to celebrate, and the first book in his new Oliver Fibbs series is released this month (in fact, you should already be able to buy a copy). We couldn't get Steve to take part in the 'Coming Up in 2013' feature, so we had to make do with Oliver Fibbs instead:


Hi! I’m Oliver Tibbs, Defender of Planet Earth. Only I can save the human race from the evil alien brains that are taking over the world’s top scientists. Only I have the power, the daring, the bravery. . .

“Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!”

OK, OK, maybe that’s not exactly true. Maybe all I actually do is read comics, eat extreme pizzas, and wait around while my brilliant family do super and special things. My life’s so boring, I have to ‘get creative’ at Show and Tell. That’s why some kids call me “Oliver Fibbs”.

But as I keep telling everyone: they’re not fibs, they’re stories!

It’s a nightmare!

How can I save the world when I’ve been grounded?

How can my best friend Peaches and I win a trip to the zoo when we’re both absolutely clueless?

And just how many Big Fat Fibs can I actually tell?

Book 2, Oliver Fibbs and the Giant Boy-Munching Bugs will be published on 6th June 2013. So fasten your seatbelts, hold on tight, and get ready for the Biggest Fattest Fibs you’ve ever heard!

Coming Up In 2013 #1: ACID by Emma Pass

Over the last few Januarys I have run a feature on The Book Zone titled 'Coming Up in ...' where I asked authors with new stand-alone or first-in-series books due out in that year to write a short big-up about their new book. This seemed like quite a popular feature at the time and so I have decided to run it again this year, though maybe on a slightly smaller scale than last year as at times I struggled to keep up with the posts.

I am chuffed to be kicking off this year's feature with Emma Pass, telling us about her debut YA novel ACID. I first heard about ACID through the lovely people at Random House, and fell in love with the book cover the moment I saw it. I have a feeling that it will be one of my favourite book covers of 2013, and I am sure that the story will be just as great. I'll now hand you over to Emma:

When I was 14, a friend and I challenged each other to write a story about someone trying to break out of jail in a future world controlled by a sinister authority. I only wrote a few chapters before getting stuck and giving up, but the idea never left me. A few years ago, I decided to try writing the prison story idea as a YA novel, and ACID was born.

ACID stands for the Agency for Crime Investigation and Defence. It's 2113, and they rule the UK, now known as the Independent Republic of Britain, with an iron fist. Their LifePartnering scheme forces teenagers into marriage, and everything, down to where you live and what job you have, is decided for you. With everything and everybody watched at all times, the smallest step out of line can lead to your arrest. When the main character, Jenna Strong, was fifteen, ACID locked her up in a brutal, all-male super-prison for a terrible crime she struggles to remember. Two years later, she's broken out by a mysterious rebel group, and ends up on a mission to find out the truth about what happened to her.

The world of ACID was inspired by books like George Orwell's 1984, and reading a story the news a few years ago that the Shetland Islands apparently have more CCTV cameras than the San Francisco police department! I've tried to write a story that's dark, thrilling and full of twists and turns that keep the reader guessing until the end, with a kick-ass heroine who'll appeal to anyone who's having withdrawal symptoms from The Hunger Games!

Coming Up In 2012 #13: The Demon's Watch by Conrad Mason

At the end of the Random House bloggers' brunch that I attended recently I felt both excited and a little concerned. Excited because of the plethora of great sounding titles they have coming out this year, but concerned because I'm not sure where the time is going to come from to read them all. If only I could win the lottery, quit the job and spend the rest of my days reading? The Demon's Watch by Conrad Mason is another one of the books we were told about that I can't wait to read. Here's Conrad to tell us a little more about his book:

My first novel, The Demon's Watch, is out in March from David Fickling Books. It's a piratical fantasy adventure in which magicians sport tricornes, ogres wield flintlocks and elves carry cutlasses.

The story is set in Port Fayt, where humans live in peace alongside trolls, goblins and fairies alike. Captain Newton and his men are the Demon's Watch, and they keep the town safe from pirates and smugglers. But now Fayt is under threat from a much more powerful enemy - the League of the Light, who want to destroy anyone who isn't human. And to make matters worse, a dangerous witch has just arrived in town.

Half-goblin boy Joseph Grubb works in his uncle's tavern, the Legless Mermaid, and has only ever heard stories of the Demon's Watch. But when he runs away from his uncle and finds himself deep in a criminal underworld, Grubb might be the one person who could help the watchmen save Port Fayt.

I've tried to write a book which is full of action, humour and mystery, and most importantly of all, heroes you can root for. A book in which a person doesn't have to be evil just because they're a goblin. A book which I hope you'll love. Because if you don't, I'll be sending the ogres round...

Coming Up In 2012 #12: Itch by Simon Mayo

Back before Christmas I received an email from the lovely people at Doubleday asking if I would be interested in reading a book that Simon Mayo had written for the 10+ age group. Yes, that Simon Mayo. He of BBC Radio 1 and now Radio 2 fame. The man whose Radio 2 Book Club I listen to every Monday evening on may way home from work. Naturally I said yes please, and I really, really enjoyed it. The book is called Itch, and it is being billed as 'Alex Rider with Geek-Power'. Watch this space for my review, which will appear on The Book Zone a little closer to its March publication date. In the meantime, here is Simon to tell you a little about Itch:

Hi to all readers of this top blog. My name is Simon Mayo and I am the author of Itch which is out on March 1st. This is my first novel and I hope you enjoy it because I absolutely loved writing it. Itch is 14 and lives with his family in Cornwall. He is a bit of an outsider really. He struggles with his family and finds it difficult to make friends. At school everyone else is obsessed with sport and computer games, Itch is just interested in science. He considers himself an element hunter, a collector of the elements in the periodic table. From the boring ones like iron and lead, to the more interesting ones like helium and mercury, and the downright dangerous ones like arsenic and polonium.

In this adventure, Itch and his sister Chloe (11) and his cousin Jack (short for Jacqueline and also 14) get their hands on a very mysterious rock. They quickly discover that it is both fantastically valuable and extraordinarily dangerous - nothing less than nuclear power in a bag. And the bag is in Itch's rucksack! Itch quickly becomes the most hunted boy in the world; police, terrorists, criminals and particularly his evil science teacher Nathaniel Flowerdew all want to find him. Very, very badly. Itch doesn't have long to decide what to with the rocks. But if he doesn't do the right thing, it could cost him his life.

Let the hunt begin!

Coming Up In 2012 #11: Black Arts by Andrew Prentice & Jonathan Weil

Back before Christmas I was sent a proof of Black Arts, a debut novel from Andrew Prentice and Jonathan Weil. I loved the premise so much that I dropped everything to read it, and I can tell you that it is superb. This Saturday just gone I was fortunate to be one of a number of bloggers invited to a brunch held by Random House Children's Books, and when one of the team was waxing lyrical about how good this book was I was the one sat at the back vigorously nodding my head in agreement. My review will follow nearer its April release date, so for now you will have to have you appetites whetted by the authors who very kindly agreed to take part in my Coming Up In 2012 feature:


Welcome to London.

Jack knows that London is dangerous. This is a place where government spies can make you disappear into the torture chamber, and where most crimes are punishable with death. As a child thief, he knows he’ll be lucky to live to the age of twenty.

He doesn’t know that London is crawling with invisible devils. He doesn’t know about the gruesome murder spree that is about to be unleashed. He doesn’t know that soon the most powerful man in the city will be hunting him to death.

He’ll find out, though, soon enough.


We set our story in London because it’s the city where we grew up, the city we love above all others; and because it’s an evil, twisted, magical place where anything can happen.

The original idea for the book came from a true London story:

Four men walk into a London pub and have lunch together. When the bill arrives, two of them disagree over who should pay, and one stabs the other through the eye, penetrating the brain and killing him instantly. The victim is London’s most successful and celebrated playwright – who happens to be a spy on the sly. He has also been accused of inciting riots and fomenting treason . . . not to mention the rumours of black magic and lewd sexual practices . . . The murderer is a petty conman, and one of the witnesses is the Queen’s own spymaster.

This happened in 1593 (the victim is Christopher Marlowe). We thought a place where that story could be true must be a good place for the sort of story we wanted to write – i.e. the sort of story we’ve always enjoyed reading ourselves. Black Arts is a story about death, vengeance, gold and devils. Anything can happen.

Coming Up In 2012 #10: Freaks by Kieran Larwood

I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to reading this book by debut writer Kieran Larwood. Members of a travelling Victorian sideshow by night, crime fighters by day? How good does that sound? Add in the fact that Freaks is the book that won The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition and it has six-pack of win written all over it. Freaks is due to be published by Chicken House in April, but in the meantime here is Kieran to tell us a little more about it in his own words: 

Victorian London in 1850 is full of diseased slums, foul stenches, seedy villains and sinister sideshows. 'Freaks' follows the members of one such sideshow as they are drawn into the underworld in an attempt to solve the mystery of pauper children being snatched from the stinking river banks. There is Sheba the wolf-girl, Sister Moon- ex-assassin, Gigantus the Man Mountain and Monkeyboy- the most disgusting creature in the British Empire. The book is a mixture of mystery, action, atmosphere and humour. It basically contains everything the ten-year old me would have loved to read, all squished together into one fast-paced, suspense-filled, freakish blob. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

Coming Up In 2012 #9: The Bonehill Curse by Jon Mayhew (and exclusive cover reveal)

My Coming Up In 2012 feature focuses on new first in series or standalone books due out this year. Some may question my inclusion of Jon Mayhew's new book, The Bonehill Curse, as it is set in the same world as his previous two stories, Mortlock and The Demon Collector. Well I make the rules, and I love those two books and their dark Victorian setting, so I have decided that The Bonehill Curse fully deserves to be a part of this feature. Of course, Jon being the great guy that he is, very kindly agreed to write something especially for us. He also sent along the image of the cover, which is very different from the one that has been doing the rounds on the internet. He tells me that this is a recent change, and that this is an exclusive reveal for The Book Zone - it is well woth clicking on the image to see it in all its hi-res glory, and I have to say that I like it much more than the one that had previously been touted as the cover for the book. The Bonehill Curse is scheduled to be published by Bloomsbury in May.

Coming up in May 2012, the final book set in the world of Mortlock. Necessity Bonehill is arrogant, a bully and trapped in Rookery Heights Academy for Young Ladies. Bored and aimless, she spends her time training with the retired, and slightly insane, Sergeant Major Morris or fighting with the local peasant boys. So when her Uncle Carlos sends her a seemingly empty bottle with the instructions, “Never open it,” she can’t resist the temptation and pulls the cork.

But Necessity unleashes an evil genie, a demon of pestilence and a creature that bears her parents a terrible grudge. With only seven days to rescue them, Ness has to find out how to kill the genie. She begins a desperate quest that takes her through the dark streets of London and to the Oasis of the Amarant in uncharted Africa. If she fails, her parents die and the world will fall prey to the genie’s hideous plague. Her nightmare magic-carpet ride brings her face to face with the Pestilents, the genie’s living dead servants, a vampire army and worst of all…herself.

The Arabian Nights viewed through a murky gothic lens with a fist-fighting girl for company! What would you wish for?

Coming Up in 2011 #10: CRYPT: The Gallows Curse by Andrew Hammond

Some of you may remember that earlier this year I ran a feature titled "Coming Up in 2011", where authors with new stand alone or first-in-series books due out this year wrote a short piece about their book. The original plan was to only run this feature during January, but when I saw mention of this book on Twitter I couldn't resist from resurrecting it. I rattled off a quick email to Maura at Headline Books and within days debut author Andrew Hammond had very kindly written the following about his new CRYPT series, due out in September:


Sometimes crimes are committed and there's no rational explanation. When atrocities occur but there's no evidence of human involvement who do the police turn to? Welcome to the CRYPT, a secretive branch of MI5 established to investigate the paranormal. The Covert Response Youth Paranormal Team is an undercover agency of teenage ghost hunters. Why undercover? Because you mention the word 'ghosts' and you can spread fear across a whole city - and ghosts feed off human fear. Why teenagers? Because that's when our extrasensory perception is at its peak. CRYPT agents don’t just sense ghosts, they can hear them, see them and read their emotions, to understand why they're back, wreaking havoc. Jud Lester is the star agent and his caseload includes the most gruesome crimes imaginable. Of course, he's not scared. But you will be. It terrified me and I wrote the series. Gallows Curse is the first in five CRYPT stories, each one set in a major world city. And as Jud finds, together with his fellow agent, Bex De Verre, beneath the glamour of the world’s most famous cities, often lies a murky, brutal history of crime and punishment. No wonder the ghosts are back for revenge…


Maura mentioned on Twitter that she thought that this might be right up my street, and based on that 'pitch' by Andrew I would be inclined to agree completely - roll on September!

Coming Up in 2011 #9: An Act of Love by Alan Gibbons

I don't know where Alan Gibbons finds the time to write these days as he spearheads the fight against the various library closures around the country. However, find the time he does, and in June his next book is scheduled to be published. And no, it's not the next book in his Hell's Underground series, but something completely different. The book is called An Act of Love, and this is Alan describing it in his own words:

“There’s a bomb.”

These are the words that pop up on eighteen-year-old soldier Chris Hook’s mobile as he waits to receive his medal after returning from duty in Afghanistan. The message comes from his boyhood friend and neighbour, Imran Hussein. 

That is the beginning of my latest novel, due to be published on June 2nd by Orion Children’s Books. From this point, a threatened suicide bombing at a British Army barracks, the novel moves forward, following the events to their conclusion and back, to when the boys were seven years old and two planes were about to crash into the Twin Towers and change their future for good.

I wanted to write a contemporary novel dealing with the impact of terrorism on young lives. What leads Chris to join the Army and risk his life in a country far away? What leads Imran to flirt with a terrorist group?

In the past I have written horror stories about demons and monsters. In this novel the horror is now. It is real.


I can't wait to read this. I have been discussing with a number of friends recently how we need more books for young people that look at issues such as this, and also more books with young moslems as main characters. My thanks go to Alan for taking time out of his ever busy schedule to write this for The Book Zone.

Coming Up in 2011 #8: The Western Mysteries - The Case of the Deadly Desperados by Caroline Lawrence

When I was a kid I loved watching Westerns on TV. My favourite were, and still are, Sergio Leone's original Man With No Name 'trilogy' starring Clint Eastwood, and The Good, the Bad and The Ugly is one of my all time Top 5 favourite films. However, it is a genre that we sadly don't often see in children's books these days but that isall soon change as Caroline Lawrence, author of The Roman Mysteries books, has a new series starting in June. Caroline very kindly wrote a short piece about her new books for The Book Zone:


My new series, The Western Mysteries, is a fresh take on the Western genre. These books do not have a square-jawed Cowboy and his Faithful Steed. Good does not always triumph and a Bullet does not kill instantly - or sometimes at all. The first book in the series, The Case of the Deadly Desperados, finds 12-year-old P.K. “Pinky” Pinkerton arriving in Virginia City homeless, orphaned and hunted by a sadistic desperado. But armed with a Smith & Wesson seven-shooter and a knack for disguises, P.K. takes on Walt and his gang, plus dancing girls, gamblers & even Mark Twain. Told in a deadpan style with plenty of sagebrush humour, gory action and historical accuracy, I hope this new series will help revive the Western genre for kids.


The first book in this series is scheduled to be published by Orion on 2nd June. The 'wild west' is a time and place that should be a great setting for boy-friendly stories and I can't wait to find out what adventures Caroline has written for her young hero. If you want to find out more about Caroline and The Western Mysteries then why not pop over to http://www.westernmysteries.com/

Coming Up in 2011 #7: Department 19 by Will Hill

Is it wrong that I already know what my favourite book of 2011 is likely to be? I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have received an early proof copy of Department 19 by Will Hill; it is brilliant, and any other book released this year will have to be pretty damn special if it is going to take this top spot at the end of the year. There was a huge amount of buzz about this book when the proofs were first released, thanks to Amanda at Floor To Ceiling Books and Liz at My Favourite Books, both of whom were attended an extra special industry event for the book at the Cabinet War Rooms. I then received a significant number of emails from readers of The Book Zone, asking me for more information about it so in the end I did a quick teaser post. Now the release date of 31 March is fast approaching and so here is Will Hill telling us about Department 19:


It's not easy being a teenage boy. It's much, much harder if the following things are true:

- Your dad died in front of you.
- You're being bullied.
- You have no friends.
- You and your mum are drifting apart.
- You get attacked by a beautiful vampire girl while the second oldest vampire in the world takes your mother hostage and drives you into the arms of the most highly classified department of the British government, where you find out that pretty much everything you thought you knew, about your life and everything else, was a lie.

Welcome to Jamie Carpenter's world.

Jamie is the hero of my first novel, Department 19, publishing in March, a hundred-mile-an-hour supernatural thriller, full of old-school vampires who would rather tear your throat out than kiss your face off, and who can't go in the sun because they will burst into flames. There's no sparkling here - just an action-packed race against time, from Victorian London to 1920s New York, from the Russian wilderness to the tiny island of Lindisfarne, where the most evil creature on the planet lies in wait...

I wrote the book for a really simple reason - I'm pretty sure my teenage self would have loved it. There weren't really books like this when I was young - I went straight from reading Roald Dahl to reading Stephen King and Clive Barker.

Department 19 is my attempt to bridge that gap.

Coming Up in 2011 #6: The Hunting Ground by Cliff McNish

We've had vampires. Werewolves too. Zombies are currently a hot subject for kids and YA books, but in 2011 it looks as if things are going to go old school and we will see the return to mass popularity of the ghost/haunted house story. And if Cliff McNish's previous work is anything to go by then I reckon The Hunting Ground should be amongst the very best in this genre in 2011. I first discovered Mr McNish through his brilliant Savannah Grey, a science fiction story with a great undercurrent of terror, and I have since  hunted out some of his other books. This new one looks like just my kind of thing, and my thanks go to Cliff for taking the time to write a short piece about The Hunting Ground for us:

I’ve always loved ghost stories. A few years ago hardly anyone was writing any good ones, so I decided to write BREATHE, where I put a boy who can talk to the dead in a lot of danger. I made it as scary as I could. In THE HUNTING GROUND two boys, Elliott (14) and Ben (12) move into a new house, but there’s something in there with them. It’s a little girl, but she’s not alive and she’s not innocent and behind her is a murderer who has been waiting a long time for new blood to arrive.

Cliff is right - there has been a disappointing dearth of good ghost stories for the younger market in recent years, and so I am really looking forward to reading this one. The Hunting Ground is scheduled for a May release, and I am sure a review will appear here on The Book Zone at some point in the future.

Coming Up in 2011 #5: 20 Years Later by E.J. Newman

Today's 'Coming Up in 2011' features a book that has been on my radar for quite a long time, and even though it will not be published until July I already know a great deal about the story as Emma Newman, the author of 20 Years Later, has been podcasting through her website for more than a year. Three quarters of the way through doing this she got a publishing deal for the book, but her publisher, a fledging US company called Dystopia Press, allowed to to continue hosting the podcasts on her website here. This is what Emma sent me about 20 Years Later for this feature:

LONDON, 2012: It arrives and with that the world is changed into an unending graveyard littered with the bones, wreckage, and memories of a dead past, gone forever.

LONDON, 2032: Twenty years later, out of the ashes, a new world begins to rise, a place ruled by both loyalty and fear, and where the quest to be the first to regain lost knowledge is an ongoing battle for power. A place where laws are made and enforced by roving gangs—the Bloomsbury Boys, the Gardners, the Red Lady’s Gang—who rule the streets and will do anything to protect their own.

THE FOUR: Zane, Titus, Erin, Eve. Living in this new world, they discover that they have abilities never before seen.  And little do they know that as they search post-apocalyptic London for Titus’ kidnapped sister that they’ll uncover the secret of It, and bring about a reckoning with the forces that almost destroyed all of humanity.

The book also has a great looking cover, and Emma kindly sent over a scan of it for me to share with you:

20 Years Later is scheduled to be released as a hardback on 5th July, and having been a fan of the podcasts for some time I am really looking forward to reading the final version - it is sure to be a hit with lovers of dystopian YA fiction. You can follow Emma on Twitter as @EmApocalyptic and 20 Years Later also has its own page on Facebook.

Coming Up In 2011 #4 : The Demon Collector by Jon Mayhew

How excited was I on Friday when I arrived home from work to find an early copy of Jon Mayhew's The Demon Collector waiting for me? His debut book Mortlock was one of my favourites of 2010 and I have been waiting (un)patiently ever since for the release this one. It is not a sequel to Mortlock, but is instead another standalone horror novel set in the Victorian era. If it is even only half as good as Mortlock it will still be brilliant in my opinion. It isn't scheduled to be released until 7th March so expect my review sometime mid-February, although I have a feeling it may have already made the jump straight to the top of my TBR pile.

Anyway, Jon very kindly said he would wrote a few words about The Demon Collector for The Book Zone:

Edgy Taylor’s life is a misery. He collects dog muck off the streets of Victorian London for a brutal tanner called Talon. At the end of a hard day all Edgy gets from his master are a few crusts of bread and a sound beating. But edgy also fears for his sanity. He can see demons when nobody else can. He sees them in the street, in public houses and even at work.

Rescued from death at the hands of Talon by the mysterious Professor Envry Janus, Edgy is thrown into the bizarre world of the Royal Society of Daemonologie. At first Edgy thinks he’s landed on his feet. But soon Edgy is fighting for his life and watching his back. It seems the Society has a rotten secret at its core and Edgy finds he must unravel the riddle of the arch-demon Moloch or die. And if he fails then all of creation will pay.