Julian Sedgwick – författare

East meets West; past meets present; criminal minds meet skilled artists - welcome to the Mysterium, a circus with dark and thrilling secrets at its heart.Twelve-year-old Danny Woo is half-Chinese, half-British. His parents are performers in the Mysterium. Following their death in a mysterious fire, Danny is sent to live with his aunt Laura, an investigative journalist.When Danny's school is closed after an explosion, he joins Laura on a trip to Hong Kong. She is researching the Triad gangs; he is trying to understand more about his cultural background.But Laura disappears, and Danny is plunged into a dangerous quest to find her - which opens the door on the past he could never have imagined, and which leads him to question everything he has ever known about his past.

Reeling from events in Barcelona, the reformed Mysterium circus company pack up and head for a new circus in Berlin. For twelve-year-old Danny Woo it is a date with destiny: it was in Berlin ('the city of escapes') that the last Mysterium performance took place, and where his parents perished in the mysterious fire for which Danny has been desperate to find an explanation.Danny is closing in on Centre - the traitor who is either part of the Mysterium, or linked to it. But a vital last clue, left in code by Danny's father, is missing. And a dark figure is shadowing the convoy as it makes its way across Europe.As the Mysterium pitches camp in Berlin, the snow begins to fall once more. The truth is within reach - but will Danny discover it in time enough to save not only himself but Sing-Sing - the sister he never knew he had.

A powerful teen thriller with echoes of J G Ballard's Empire of the Sun and Miracles of Life ...Obsessed with martial arts and ghost stories, Ruby is part of a gang of Chinese and ex-pat children who hide out in ruined White Cloud Temple. But the world of Shanghai in the late 1920s is driven with danger: disease, crime, espionage and revolution are sweeping the streets. And since the death of her younger brother Thomas, Ruby is stalked by another anxiety and fear. Faced with a series of local hauntings, and armed with a lucky bookshop find - The Almanac of Distant Realms - Ruby forms the Shanghai Ghost Club to hunt down restless spirits. When best friend Faye is kidnapped by the Green Hand, Ruby must trust a mysterious stranger - and face her worst fears - in order to save her friends, and her own life. And in the ensuing fight she will catch a glimpse of the one spirit she has longed to see ...The secrets that Ruby's father and friends have kept from her are coming back to haunt them all.

J G Ballard's Empire of the Sun meets Susan Hill's The Woman in Black in a compelling teen thriller ...Ruby - a Western girl who feels more Chinese than English - and her friend Charlie must follow the Yangtze hundreds of miles upriver, travelling by Chinese junk and rogue steamer, through bandit and ghost haunted countryside - doggedly tracking Moonface as he spirits Charlie's sister Fei off to his home village. Everything is in flux around them: civil war pulsing, with Nationalists, Communists and warlord bandits struggling for control. The river rises and falls, villages spring up and are gone again. Ruby and Charlie brave a shipwreck and a gunbattle and then take a perilous cliff path to Moonface's lair.

'The thing about ghosts is sometimes we create our own. And sometimes they find us, no matter what we do.' The thrilling conclusion to the Ghosts of Shanghai by the award-winning author of the Mysterium trilogy, for fans of Philip Pullman, Susan Hill and Robin Stevens.Ruby is on a mission to rescue the boy she loves: Charlie has been swept away in the powerful waters of the River Yangtze. But the world she loves is now broken by danger and fear, and Ruby is lost and surrounded by ghosts. Can Ruby trust herself, and those around her, to find Charlie and return to Shanghai? Or has she ventured too deep into the realm of spirits?On an amazing journey down the Yangtze, crossing from one world to the other, Ruby must follow the 'red thread of destiny' to find Charlie and home, before she loses herself . . .

SHORTLISTED for the CARNEGIE GREENAWAY AWARD 2022Fifteen-year-old Yuki is struggling at school with her confidence, and goes to Japan to stay with her grandfather, a well-known manga artist and to whom she is very close. But during her visit, a calamitous event occurs - the East Coast Earthquake and Tsunami - and her beloved Grandpa is lost. Yuki and her friend Taka must make sense of the terrible situation and come to terms with the loss of their life as they knew it - and see that through renewal and with resilience, they can emerge from this tragedy with optimism for the future. Interwoven with Japanese folk tales, modern-day ghost stories, and the creation of her very own vibrant manga hero, Yuki finds the courage to overcome extraordinary odds, and take her first steps into the world that lies beyond catastrophe. Told through both prose and manga, this story for young adults will touch the heart of any reader.'Impressive and Original' – Financial Times'Breathtakingly Powerful' – LoveReading