Mr Ripley's Book Cover Reveal: Allan Boroughs - BLOODSTONE - (Legend of Ironheart Series)

Here is the cracking new book cover for Allan's second book in the Ironheart series called Bloodstone. It is hot off the press as it is not due to be published until January 2015. This amazing book cover is the work of Jeremy Reston and is absolutely stunning. What do you think? 

'What is a myth but a truth retold many times over? Atlantis is real!'

Apprenticed to notorious tech-hunter Verity Brown, India Bentley has spent the last year travelling the globe, finding and selling long-lost technology and doing her best to stay out of trouble. Unfortunately, trouble has a habit of finding her.

Accused of an assassination attempt and thrown in jail, India is rescued by scientist-adventurer Professor Moon: a man obsessed with finding theBloodstone; key to a source of unlimited energy hidden in the lost city of Atlantis. Now Moon wants India and Verity to join his quest.

Pursued by gangsters, lumbered with a stowaway and haunted by the ghosts of her past, India must risk everything to uncover Atlantis's secrets. But the truth comes at a price.

INDIA MUST MAKE THE ULTIMATE CHOICE. THE FATE OF HUMANITY IS IN HER HANDS.

A brand new thrilling adventure-quest in Allan Boroughs' Legend of Ironheart series.

Published by Macmillan Children's Books;  (1 Jan 2015)

Book Review: Chris Riddell - Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse

Welcome to Ghastly-Gorm Hall - the home to yet another brilliant read. Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse is one of the best books that I have read by Chris Riddell as a solo writer. It is brilliantly funny and an absolute joy to read.

The first thing that you will notice is how gorgeous this book both looks and feel. There is a great deal of attention to detail which is brilliant to see within this digital era. The hand-held hardback is in the same style as the much loved Ottoline series which was published way back in February 2007. The book will definitely jump off the bookshelves to potential readers through the striking and quirky image of Ada on the front cover. 

Before you even start to read the book, another two aspects that will capture your attention are the iridescent purple page edges and the silver gilt skull motifs on the endpapers. Both of these elements work particularly well, in my opinion. These are definitely the best endpapers that I have seen for a very long time. The silver gilt skull motifs on black paper shine with so much light that you will need sunglasses on just to look at them. They really make the book come alive before you even start to read the fantastic adventure inside. 

When Ada Goth wakes in the night to find the disgruntled ghost of a mouse on her bedroom carpet, she is more intrigued than scared. The mouse, formally known as Ishmael, is rather cross about his ghostly predicament so Ada decides to befriend him. In a house where it is believed that little girls should be heard not seen, which means Ada has to walk round Ghastly-Gorm Hall with large oversize boots, a whim of her eccentric father Lord Goth. 

Whilst exploring the mysterious halls and winding corridors, Ada and Ishmael uncover a dastardly plot to sabotage her father's annual Metaphorical Bike Race and Indoor Hunt. 

As you follow Ada and the Ghost mouse through this tale you will be both enchanted and delighted in this family adventure. It is a perfect book to read to your children - the fantastic pen/pencil detailed images scattered throughout this beautiful book add another outstanding level of fantasy to enhance the story.

Chris Riddell has excelled himself with this book. It is a witty homage to some of the most famous literary classics, which have allowed him to run riot with his spectacular ideas. It is a warm, funny and highly imaginative tale of courage, friendship and loyalty. All of which have been told in a deliciously dark and gothic way. What more could you want? Well there is a little bonus at the end, but I shall say no more!

We need many more books like this.........

Published by Macmillan Children's Books in Hardback on 12th September 2013

Andrew Lane - Lost Worlds - Chapter One Preview......

                       

I was hoping to post all of chapter one onto my blog. Unfortunately, blogger will not allow me to publish the PDF file that I was sent. Therefore this is the start of chapter one for you to enjoy. If you would like to read the rest of this chapter then please click on the link at the end of the post.  I hope that you all enjoy this little taster and that it will encourage you to buy a copy of the book, once it has been published on the 25th April. Please also read my review for it HERE

You can also check out the great new website at (www.thelostworlds.co.uk)

Calum Challenger gazed in awe at the image on the computer screen. Well, to be fair, he gazed in awe at the image on the central one of the ten screens that hung, at different heights, suspended from articulated arms, in front of his work desk. The image was blurred and grainy, but that wasn’t the screen’s fault. His multi-screen, high- definition, hex-core computer system was the best that money could buy – and despite the fact that he was only sixteen he had access to a lot of money. An awful lot of money. No, the image was blurred and grainy because it had been blown up from a photograph taken with a mobile phone camera at long range while the subject was moving. Even so, he could just about see what it was.

He leaned back in his chair. Five years he’d been waiting for an image like this to turn up. Five years. Now it was here, captured in colour on his computer screen, he wasn’t sure how he should react.

A cold breeze from the darkened expanse of the warehouse behind him caressed the hairs on the back of his neck. He didn’t turn around. He knew that it was just a random gust of wind through a ventilation grille – the alarm systems would have gone off if anyone had actually broken in to the warehouse. He was, as he almost always was these days, alone. 

The screen showed a figure against a background of grass, bushes and rocks. Judging by the figure’s shadow the background was slanted – perhaps a hillside or a slope. The interesting thing – the thing that had made Calum catch his breath in wonder – was that the figure didn’t look human. 

It was difficult to tell its size, with only the heights of the bushes to compare it with, but Calum got the impression that it was about the size of a large man. It was stooped, with rounded shoulders and bowed arms that dangled in front of it. Its skin seemed to be covered with short, red hair, with the exception of pale lines up its spine, down the inside of its forearms and beneath its jaw. He could have been looking at a big, hairy man with a stoop, except that the face was different. A thick ridge of brow pushed out over the eyes, like a chimpanzee, and the teeth and jaw were pushed out slightly, but a distinct nose projected out beneath the eyes. Chimpanzees didn’t have noses.

He drew a box around the figure’s right hand with a couple of clicks of his trackball, and flicked the section of image inside the box to another of his screens. The result was pixelated almost to the point of incoherence, but he could just make out what looked like a thumb that was separate from the rest of the fingers, and angled so that it could close against them. An opposable thumb – that was another thing that ruled out the possibility that it was a chimpanzee. Calum knew that their thumbs were much shorter than the rest of their fingers, making it easier for them to climb trees. Gorillas had opposable thumbs, but this wasn’t anything like a gorilla. Some Old World monkeys, like mandrills, also had opposable thumbs, but they were all small – the size of a dog – and there was no way they could be mistaken for human. No, this thing was unique.

He ran his fingers through his long hair and interlaced them at the back of his neck. He supposed it could be a man in a mask and a hairy suit – like that 1967 footage taken in California which was supposed to show an ape- like creature locally known as the sasquatch but which had turned out to be a hoax. That was the problem with these blurry photographs or jerky video clips – they could so easily be hoaxes. And yet . . . its forearms seemed longer in proportion to its upper arms, and to the rest of its body. Reduced to a silhouette, it just didn’t look human. If the creature was a hoax then it was a very well constructed one.

The creature. He laughed suddenly, and the laughter echoed back to his ears from the cold brick walls of the warehouse. He was already thinking of it as the creature. Just a few moments ago it had been the figure. Somewhere in his mind, it seemed that he had already made a decision about the photograph’s likely authenticity.

http://www.panmacmillan.com/devpanmacmillan/media/panmacmillan/Activities/Book extracts/LostWorlds-chapter1.pdf?ext=.pdf

Book Review: F. E. Higgins - The Phenomenals: A Tangle Of Traitors

       
I remember being gripped many years ago by this author's debut book 'The Black Book Of Secrets'. This was a brilliant and slightly different read to anything else at that time. It was certainly an exciting platform for the start of her writing career - a book that made me into a huge fan. This is now her sixth book to have been published and the start of a new series. One, that in my opinion, will find a new readership. So step this way into the new world of F. E. Higgins.....

From the very first page, you will note the interesting use of words and, at times, experimental vocabulary that conjures up a flavour to this unusual adventure. I particularly enjoyed this aspect of the writing. I found myself looking up many of the words to find that they were not in the dictionary that I possessed. However, they certainly added to the interest of the story and the plot.

With this story we are thrown into a great twisted adventure full of eerie and somewhat macabre comings and goings that I have come to expect from this author. There is an undercurrent of a supernatural or, in this book, a Supermundane nature that will tug at your soul. I was hoping for more of the story to be developed, but I was left wanting more to quench my thirst.

The book is full of phenomenal characters that will both intrigue and engage you on different levels. Citrine Capodel - heiress to a corrupt empire and framed for a murder she did not commit; Folly Harpelaine - a merciless destroyer of Lurids, who dabbles in the dark arts; Jonah Scrimshander - a deadly harpoonist, who has already cheated death and, Vincent Verdigris (my favourite with such a great name) who is light-fingered but even lighter on his feet. That's just for starters. The next motley crew include Edgar (brother to Citrine evil) and heartless Leopold Kamptulicon, who hangs out with his old pal - a Lurid ghost who has risen from the tar pits. A beastly destination for the dead. This is a putrid place full of Wraiths - the traitors and murderers who have drowned in its bubbling depths. 

I loved the storyline as it was both clever and funny. Although the imaginative elements, at times, were very creepy. The depiction of the tar pits and Vincent's encounter with the torture chair were both gripping and enthralling to read. Fiona has stretched her creative juices and let everything go in this book. The expectations for this book have been delivered making it a mouth-watering beginning for the next book "A Gaggle of Ghouls" which is due to be published in 

August.

Published by Macmillan Children's Books

Press Release:Macmillan Children’s Books buys three-book series by Andrew Lane

                                 

(Picture by Helen Stirling)

MCB Associate Publishing Director, Polly Nolan, has bought world rights in a new three-book series by Andrew Lane, author of the hugely popular Young Sherlock Holmes series. Rights were acquired from Robert Kirby at United Agents.

Entitled Lost Worlds, Macmillan Children’s Books will publish one novel a year from May 2013 in ebook and paperback original, the paperback retailing at £5.99.  The launch will be backed by a major marketing and publicity campaign.

The Lost Worlds novels will feature fifteen-year-old Calum Challenger, a genius on a mission to track down creatures considered so rare that most people don’t believe they exist. Calum is doing it for two reasons – to take their DNA and use that to help protect these species, but also to search for a cure for his paralysis. From his state-of-the-art bedroom in London he commands a group of fearless misfit friends – a computer hacker, a free runner, an ex-marine and a pathological liar – in a race around the globe against those who want to wipe out these endangered creatures.

Andrew Lane comments:

‘I'm more than overjoyed to be working on this exciting new series with the highly talented editorial, marketing and publicity teams at Macmillan. I've had an amazing time working with them on Young Sherlock Holmes, and Lost Worlds will bring the same sense of intelligent adventure and excitement to a modern-day setting.

‘That doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing Young Sherlock Holmes. The series gets more popular every day, and I've got plenty of ideas up my sleeve that will keep both series bubbling merrily along!’

Belinda Rasmussen, Publisher, Macmillan Children's Books, adds:

‘We are delighted to be working with Andrew Lane on a new series to sit alongside the Young Sherlock Holmes series. Lost Worlds has a captivating cast of characters and a pacy, narrative style combined with nail-biting adventure and thrilling plot twists. As with Young Sherlock Holmes, all these elements make a truly addictive read.’

Andrew Lane is an author, journalist and lifelong Sherlock Holmes fan. Macmillan Children’s Books publishes his bestselling Young Sherlock Holmes series, with a fifth novel, Snake Bite, due to be launched in October 2012.

Andrew's passion for the original novels of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his determination to create an authentic teenage Sherlock Holmes made him the perfect choice to work with the Conan Doyle Estate to reinvent the world’s most famous detective in this new series.

He lives in Hampshire with his wife and son.