Author: Andrew Hammond
Publisher: Headline
RRP: $14.99
ISBN: 9780755378210
Release Date: Sept 2011
Pages: 352
Description:
A fantastic blend of teenage spies, horror and ghost-busting.
Meet Jud Lester: Paranormal Investigator.
When a crime is committed and the police are at a loss, the Covert Response Youth Paranormal Team (or CRYPT for short) is called in to figure out whether something paranormal is at work. Jud is their star agent.
Jud, unwillingly paired with new recruit Bex, has just landed his biggest case yet... people have been disappearing in mysterious circumstances while others have been viciously attacked - yet there are no suspects and a complete lack of hard evidence. The only thing that links each attack is the fact that the survivors all claim that the culprits were 17th century highwaymen.
Can Jud and Bex work out what has caused the spirits of these dangerous men to return to the streets of London before they wreak more death and destruction ?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After some years in the legal profession, Andrew re-trained as a teacher and has been a Deputy Headmaster, Director of Studies, Housemaster and Head of English and Drama. He now works as an educational consultant and motivational speaker.
Andrew has written over thirty educational titles and has contributed articles to the Times Educational Supplement and other educational periodicals. The CRYPT Series is Andrew's first foray into the world of fiction.
Andrew lives in West Sussex with his wife and four children. Follow Andrew on Twitter @HammondCRYPT.
Review:
This is the sort of YA book that gets teens into horror books when they get a bit older. It is written with enough subtle elements of horror that play on your fears and scare the hell out of you. I can see a young reader thoroughly enjoying the superb writing of Hammond, only to become a bit disappointed when they begin to look for an adult equivalent of this author when they move on to the next level of novels as they become older.
I’d have to compare the story telling genius of Hammond to someone like Stephen King. There are just so many well written characters and scenes in this book that I found myself rereading it shortly after I’d finished the book.
I’ve read some reviews that compare this book to a mixture of ghost buster meets Bond, with a bucket of gore smeared over top, and I must say that this is a pretty good description. The Covert Youth Paranormal Team (CRYPT) remind me of a 21 Jump St type set up, with young investigators looking into the paranormal crimes of the city. This series would actually make a great TV serial and I reckon it would amass a huge fan base if it ever did eventuate.
The paranormal attacks centre around London, in my opinion, makes the book feel honest. Although, the vivid detail leaves the reader with a rather disturbing picture right until the very end of the story.
This is a great series and I’ll be following each book as it comes out for sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment