A photo of a selection of children's crime books on a red background with a magnifying glass hovering over the book The London Mystery by Siobhan Dowd

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Children's reading lists

16 must-read crime and mystery books

20 Powerful First Lines To Get You Hooked On A Story

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18 powerful first lines to get you hooked on a story

In the Nick of Time

A brilliantly atmospheric and chilling thriller from the master storyteller and multi-award-winner, Robert Swindells.

Short chapters, clear, punchy writing and clever yse of cliffhangers are the hallmarks of Swindell's writing, here used to powerful effect to create a gripping, fast-paced read

Swindells helps the suspension of disbelief with a careful leavening of information about the 1950s and enough action to keep the story moving along

Definitely not to be missed, there is much to think about in this one

Robert Swindells writes the kinds of books that are so scary you're afraid to turn the page

ROBERT SWINDELLS left school at fifteen to work on a local newspaper. At seventeen, he joined the RAF for three years, then trained and worked as a teacher. Now a full-time writer, he is the author of a number of bestselling titles for the Random House children's list. In 1994 he won the Carnegie Medal for STONE COLD (Hamish Hamilton), a teenage novel about a serial killer. 
 
RUBY TANYA won the Salford Children's Book Award 2005. 
 
'Plots which grip the reader from the opening paragraph' THE SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'Robert Swindells writes the kinds of books that are so scary you're afraid to turn the page' YOUNG TELEGRAPH

Charlotte is out in the woods on her own one day when something mysterious happens - she walks along a row of stones laid like stepping stones on the forest floor . . . and finds herself in another age. She has somehow slipped back to 1955, and is now, in the same woods, on the site of a very unique school, an open-air school for sick city children. No one believes her tales of the world she's come from, her mobile doesn't work and she can't see how on earth she's going to get back. A friendship with another pupil proves the key - is Jack more than he seems?

Abomination

A powerful, disturbing thriller reissued in The Originals series of classic teenage fiction. 
 
Martha is twelve - and very different from other kids, because of her parents. Strict members of a religious group - the Brethren - their rules dominate Martha's life. And one rule is the most important of all: she must never ever invite anyone home. If she does, their shameful secret - Abomination - could be revealed. But as Martha makes her first real friend in Scott, a new boy at school, she begins to wonder. Is she doing the right thing by helping to keep Abomination a secret? And just how far will her parents go to prevent the truth from being known? 
 
The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths

Robert Swindells was born in Bradford in 1939 and continues to live in Yorkshire.  He left school at 15 and worked in a variety of jobs, including primary school teaching, before becoming a full-time writer. His widely acclaimed novels often reflect his political passions, such as BROTHER IN THE LAND, which is set in the aftermath of a nuclear war. He has won the Red House Children's Book Prize several times and in 1993 he won the prestigious Carnegie Medal for STONE COLD, a young adult novel about homelessness.

Martha is twelve - and very different from other kids, because of her parents. Strict members of a religious group - the Brethren - their rules dominate Martha's life. And one rule is the most important of all: she must never ever invite anyone home. If she does, their shameful secret - Abomination - could be revealed. But as Martha makes her first real friend in Scott, a new boy at school, she begins to wonder. Is she doing the right thing by helping to keep Abomination a secret? And just how far will her parents go to prevent the truth from being known?

Stone Cold

Stone Cold is a Carnegie Medal-winning thriller by Robert Swindells. It is one of The Originals from Penguin - iconic, outspoken, first. 
 
A tense thriller plot is combined with a perceptive and harrowing portrait of life on the streets as a serial killer preys on the young and vulnerable homeless. Link, aged 17, is distrustful of people until he pairs up with Deb, another homeless youngster. But what Deb doesn't tell him is that she's an ambitious young journalist on a self-imposed assignment to track down the killer and she's prepared to use herself as bait ... 
 
The Originals are the pioneers of fiction for young adults. From political awakening, war and unrequited love to addiction, teenage pregnancy and nuclear holocaust, The Originals confront big issues and articulate difficult truths. The collection includes: The Outsiders - S.E. Hinton, I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Postcards from No Man's Land - Aidan Chambers, After the First Death - Robert Cormier, Dear Nobody - Berlie Doherty, The Endless Steppe - Esther Hautzig, Buddy - Nigel Hinton, Across the Barricades - Joan Lingard, The Twelfth Day of July - Joan Lingard, No Turning Back - Beverley Naidoo, Z for Zachariah - Richard C. O'Brien, The Wave - Morton Rhue, The Red Pony - John Steinbeck, The Pearl - John Steinbeck, Stone Cold - Robert Swindells.

A tense, exciting thriller combined with a perceptive and harrowing portrait of life on the streets as a serial killer preys on the young and vulnerable homeless. 17-year-old Link is distrustful of people until he pairs up with Deb, homeless like him. But what Deb doesn't tell him is that she's an ambitious young journalist on a self-imposed assignment to track down the killer and that she's prepared to use herself as bait ... 
 
Winner of the Carnegie Medal

The Shade of Hettie Daynes

Robert Swindells leaves nothing to chance in this most entertaining ghost story. They didn't have books for children like this when I was a nipper!

Gripping, spooky tale that is full of suspense

If you expect to see a ghost, you see a ghost... 
That's what Bethan tells herself when her brother Harry takes her to see the ghost at the old reservoir. But she really can see it: a pale figure floating over the water, one finger pointing downwards. 
 
Local legend says that the ghost is Hettie Daynes, an ancestor of their family, who vanished over a hundred years ago. 
 
If so, what does she want? And why is she appearing now? 
 
Harry and Bethan and their friends Rob and Alison are determined to find out! 
 
A deliciously shivery ghost tale from multi award-winning author Robert Swindells.

Inside The Worm

Reissue of a dramatic and gripping adventure from an award-winning author

Robert Swindells knows how to make readers horripilate

Short, finely-paced chapters, action without melodrama, chill with garish theatricality . . .

A fascinating tale and genuinely frightening in places. Timing is the essence of a thriller and the brief chapters push the story forward relentlessly

Simply told but missing no opportunity to turn the screw of suspense

ROBERT SWINDELLS left school at fifteen to work on a local newspaper.  At seventeen, he joined the RAF for three years, then trained and worked as a teacher.  Now a full-time writer, he is the author of a number of bestselling titles for the Random House children's list.  In 1994 he won the Carnegie Medal for STONE COLD (Hamish Hamilton), a teenage novel about a serial killer.

The worm was close now. So close Fliss could smell the putrid stench of its breath. Its slavering jaws gaped to engulf her... 
Everyone in Elsworth knows the local legend about the monstrous worm - or dragon - that once terrorised the village. But it never really happened. Or did it? For when Fliss and her friends are chosen to re-enact the legend for the village Festival, the four who are to play the part of the worm dance as one across the ground. They are the worm. And Fliss begins to feel real fear. Somehow the worm itself is returning - with a thousand-year hunger in its belly, and a burning desire for vengeance...

Jacqueline Hyde

A gripping thriller from master storyteller Robert Swindells.

Robert Swindells, perhaps more than any other contemporary author, narrates modern-day fables which not only reflect present-day society but also peoples them with living breathing characters. Jacqueline Hyde adds to his soaring reputation as a master story-teller in the Dickensian tradition

A surprisingly dark allegory about the dangers of "stuff that comes in bottles"

Children who are starting to rebel will find lots to identify with

ROBERT SWINDELLS left school at fifteen to work on a local newspaper. At seventeen, he joined the RAF for three years, then trained and worked as a teacher. Now a full-time writer, he is the author of a number of bestselling titles for the Random House children's list. In 1994 he won the Carnegie Medal for STONE COLD (Hamish Hamilton), a teenage novel about a serial killer. 
 
'Plots which grip the reader from the opening paragraph' THE SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'Robert Swindells writes the kinds of books that are so scary you're afraid to turn the page' YOUNG TELEGRAPH

When Jacqueline Hyde finds the little glass bottle in Grandma's attic her life suddenly changes. Goodbye clean, good Jacqueline. Hello cheeky, loud Jacqueline Bad. 
 
It's fun at first. Exciting. But then Jacqueline Bad gets into serious trouble. And although she keeps trying to be her old self, the bad side just won't let go... 
 
A darkly addictive fable, truly absorbing.

Robert Swindells

An 'After-the-Bomb' story told by teenage Danny, one of the survivors - one of the unlucky ones. Set in Shipley, an ordinary town in the north of England, this is a powerful portrayal of a world that has broken down. Danny not only has to cope in a world of lawlessness and gang warfare, but he has to protect and look after his little brother, Ben, and a girl called Kim. Is there any hope left for a new world?

Robert Swindells

Books by Robert Swindells

Articles featuring Robert Swindells

16 must-read crime and mystery books

18 powerful first lines to get you hooked on a story

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