Midnight for Charlie Bone

The Children of the Red King series of books begins with Midnight for Charlie Bone (June 2002). The stories focus on Charlie Bone, aged ten, one of the many descendents of the Red King and an inheritor of part of his magical powers. Charlie is determined to find his lost father, Lyell, who stood alone against his family in trying to prevent what he considered to be a crime. Lyell was horribly punished for his courage and Charlie almost suffers the same fate. But his good nature and indomitable spirit win him loyal friends, and together they endeavour to overcome the evil that threatens them. The children that help Charlie come from very different backgrounds and ethnic groups. Olivia, Fidelio, Benjamin and Emma have their own battles to win and their small victories are interwoven with Charlie's long and dangerous quest. Their struggles, sometimes scary and sometimes humorous, take place during five terms spent at Bloor's Academy, an ancient school where the endowed descendents of the Red King can be watched and controlled. The evil Bloors have many willing accomplices among the pupils; werewolves, hypnotists, mind-readers and witches do their best to defeat Charlie. Not least of his troubles are the machinations of his sinister grandmother and her three grim sisters. There will be five magical adventures of Children of the Red King in all. Here the eternal conflict within families, the battles of siblings divided by jealousy and by their perceptions of good and evil, right and wrong, are resolved and an extraordinary family is healed by the courage of Charlie Bone.