These are both new titles from Little Tiger – thank you to the publisher for sending them for review.

Dead Yard : Seeds of Doom
P.J.Kilburn, illustrated by Markia Jenai

P.J.Kilburn’s debut novel celebrates Caribbean culture and folklore.

Jermaine’s wish is to be a movie director and he’s spending the Easter holidays shooting an entry for a junior film making competition. However he has to attend his great great uncle’s Dead Yard (a service for the deceased lasting all night) and he’s instructed not to eat any of the food until after midnight. But the sight of a plate of delicious- looking patties proves irresistible and chomp! he starts biting into one. A big mistake.

Suddenly he’s in his own horrific adventure bound-up with Uncle Carl’s ghost and boy, is he bad-tempered. Moreover, there’s a malevolent-looking man searching for a bag of cursed cassava seeds and an outbreak of an epidemic that makes the local children dangerously ill. All that plus the unanticipated arrival to of a woman claiming to be an old flame of Carl’s.

Can Jermaine possibly work with his uncle Carl, sort out this complex chaotic situation and save those they care about, before it’s too late?

Imbued with humour and creepiness, this fun, shortish horror mystery, is set not in the Caribbean but in a modern day London’s Shepherd’s Bush community. Taste it and see …

More creepiness in:

How to Survive a Horror Sequel
Scarlett Dunmore

This sequel to How to Survive a Horror Movie begins towards the end of October with protagonist Charley trying to rebuild her life after attempts to kill her at her boarding school. As the story opens Charley is with her mother who is driving the car northwards through the darkness of the Scottish countryside to the town where they hope to make a new start. When they stop for petrol and some supplies, Charley is certain she sees a ghost nearby though she doesn’t say anything. But then the car stops and won’t restart alongside a road sign telling them they have reached Glendale, (a village also known as the Devil’s Punchbowl) and they have to go back to the garage on foot to seek help. The bad news is that the car will take some considerable time to mend, the good news is that someone offers them a temporary dwelling – a run-down, rather creepy house.

Charley has little choice but to stay and she begins investigating her new environment. Soon she becomes aware of both ghosts and disappearances. It transpires that Glendale has a long-standing association with witches, but worse than that Charley convinces herself that the Harrogate Killer is on her trail. As Halloween draws ever closer, she’s determined to discover just what is happening at Glendale.

Can she possibly do so when she’s not sure who among its residents an be trusted. Full of horror movie tropes, some new characters to enjoy, and imbued with a dry wit, plus a dramatic finale, this will grip readers all the way to its final question.