The Danny Canterbury Tales (Teen Editions) Series

Chardelia Foss and the River of Fear is an engrossing romantic mystery thriller set in a gothic school in the North East of England. Fifteen year-old student Chardelia is growing up too fast. Her hometown Amberleigh, a small seaside community, is being threatened. Riddled with dramatic cliffs, gothic castles and abbeys, scenic waterfalls and rivers, picturesque cobbles and lanes, Chardelia would do anything to protect Amberleigh. What is worse, she has a secret none of her classmates know about, as well as a concealed crush on Danny Canterbury. However, Danny is infatuated with Janna Chisely, and too busy to notice Chardelia. When best friend Amanita Walmer starts a school newspaper in her ambition to be a journalist, Danny struggles with how he can make himself seem worthy to Janna. But as sinister episodes shake the school, the adolescent Danny finds himself at the centre of a destructive plot involving first dates and trigonometry, bombs and mysterious underground caverns. As teachers around Amberleigh begin to mysteriously disappear and die, and explosions rock the school in an apparent terrorist attack, Danny becomes increasingly fascinated by the enigmatic Chardelia. Can she help him rescue the truth? How close will Danny come to understanding Chardelia’s true feelings before it is too late? Who is perpetrating the attack within the school? Faced with saving Janna or Chardelia, who will Danny choose? Amid the terror of moonlit dances, first kisses and swimming lessons, comes terror of a wholly unexpected kind. Chardelia Foss and the River of Fear is a startling debut that marks the pain of first love within the often dark skies of school. Fans of Melvin Burgess, Judy Blume and Amanda Hocking will love this book.

This is an enthralling novel about hope and reclaimed childhood set amid a blistering spring in the lower-sixth form. Fans of Melvin Burgess, Judy Blume and Amanda Hocking will love this book. When Danny Canterbury begins his first year in the new sixth-form at St Plunket's he encounters new student Cherry Trove who has transferred from a school across town. Immediately entranced by the alluring Cherry, he begins to plan how he can make his move to reach her inner circle. When a global search gets underway for a missing child, it stirs dark memories for Danny and he realizes that his present adolescent dramas are nothing compared to the lost childhood innocence stolen from him when he was five years old. Memories of his childhood friend Robin Vernal's disappearance come flooding back and he cannot escape the feeling there is more hidden in his past than he has admitted. Cherry partners with Danny to help him get closer to the truth over her vanishing. However as hope begins to reawaken, rejection looms. Can Danny summon the courage to uncover what really happened to his childhood companion? Robin Vernal and the Brownleaf Spring uncovers a dark truth that hides behind Danny Canterbury’s pain. In this arresting third installment of Dominic Jericho’s coming-of-age saga, hope and despair intermingle until they face each other in a final confrontation, where all bets are off.

Saffelia Forrest and the Snowfall Grove is an intriguing mystery set amid the pale snow of a bleak winter in a dark forest. Sixteen year-old Saffelia has a problem for which she cannot ask her friends for help. Concealing the origin of her mysterious blackouts is becoming a constant struggle as she approaches her final year at St Oliver Plunkets. When she takes a camping trip into the Snowfall Grove, she and her friends unwittingly encounter several new intruders who disrupt their idyllic expedition. To their horror, on return to school they discover the intruders have joined the teaching staff. So begins a year of oppression, fakery and a toxic battle to close down freedom of speech on their school newspaper, The Oracle. Classes on Romantic poetry split their year down the middle as a gender battle breaks out among the students. But Saffelia has a much darker concern - she knows something about one of the teachers no-one else does, and confiding this secret could tear her fragile world apart. Will she find the courage to face her hidden shame? This is a gripping and twisty thriller about a secret plot to exploit young people set in the environs of a mysterious forest and a gothic school. Fans of Paula Hawkins, Jo Nesbo and Stieg Larsson will enjoy this book. Saffelia Forrest and the Snowfall Grove is the second novel in Dominic Jericho's coming-of-age series, and explores how friendship can withstand misplaced authority, amid the destructive seduction of Romantic poetry. Fans of Melvin Burgess, Judy Blume and Amanda Hocking will love Dominic Jericho's books.

This is a fiery novel about the experience of teen lesbian love in a small seaside town amid a languorous summer in the upper-sixth. Fans of Melvin Burgess, Judy Blume and Amanda Hocking will love this book. With one year remaining of sixth-form a tragic beach accident strikes the heart of a close-knit group of teenagers, killing two of their dear friends. As they attempt to come to terms with the grief for their loss, political forces threaten to claim and overrun their town, destroying the places and sanctuaries the group frequents. Determined to withstand any attempts to further fling their friendships apart, the small group closes ranks and vows revenge. When two of the teens, Sandi Burrill and Cherry Trove, fall hopelessly in love with each other, the flames of their passion ignites their independence but overwhelms their understanding. Neither girl is aware how fraught with danger and peril their love will become. When Cherry's brother is accused of raping Sandi's sister, a local councillor's wife Jonquil Davis plots to split the couple, and drive the Burrills away from Amberleigh. As details begin to emerge that the tragedy was not accidental but a serious crime, it becomes clear where Conservative power-brokers in the town will look to assign the blame. Amid the confusion of the subsequent police investigation, one question looms: will Sandi and Cherry's love survive their remaining tenure in Amberleigh, and the power of political force? At once a deeply told love story and a coruscating comment on British politics, Sandi Burrill and the Beach of Flames presents a searing portrait of a community on the brink, and eloquently explores the desperation of teenage love trapped by a forbidding and uncontrollable environment.

This is an thunderous thriller set amid the capitals of Europe, America's national parks and the small seaside town of Amberleigh. When bookworm Eva Acacia wins a place at Oxford University to study joint honours in History and Astrophysics, she discovers both friendship and romance. Having grown up in an ancient beamed lodge in Yorkshire, Eva is curious both about the past and the future of the world and the universe, and is drawn to the few people who can both engage her mind and seduce her soul. When she meets Ufai Velia in the university library one day she is outwardly defensive but inwardly confused by her own instinctive attraction. Their encounter ends in an agreement to meet for a date, which progresses to a romantic apotheosis at a college ball. Enraptured by their newfound love, and intellectually curious about European culture, Ufai and Eva agree to go interrailing together one summer. However when they are cornered in a Venice alleyway by two robbers, Eva discovers shades of darkness in her new boyfriend. These wounded fears threaten to overwhelm her conscience and define not only her destiny but also that of her unborn child, Danny Canterbury. A feast of words, this novel is written in a mixture of first and third person narratives, stream of consciousness, poetry, letters and free prose. The final book of Dominic Jericho’s coming-of-age series delivers all the answers to the mystery behind Danny's quest. When the final page is turned Danny’s adventures come to a collapsing close in a way only he can write.

This is an experimental novel written in free prose, neologisms, idiosyncrasies, puns, rhyme, poetry, stream of consciousness and pop rhythms. When bookworm Eva Acacia wins a place at Oxford University she discovers friendship and romance. But when she travels round Europe she discovers shades of darkness in her new boyfriend Ufai Velia, that threaten to overwhelm her conscience and define not only her destiny but that of her unborn child, Danny Canterbury. Mixing first and third person narratives from Eva's, Ufai's and Danny's stories, and deploying a range of linguistic techniques that at times both obscure and elucidate the psychological and literary allusions at play, the reader is constantly asked whose story is this and who is the writer? On this sea of language rides an anguishing of the soul which, if the reader is careful and attentive, can enlighten the dark secret and deep mystery at the thunderous heart of Danny's hidden quest. Is it a burning quest for revenge that Danny seeks, or an ability to ascend the murderous drama that has blighted his life thus far, and reach the ultimate freedom of expression through discovering a new language? In the final book of Dominic Jericho’s coming-of-age series Danny’s adventures come to a collapsing end in a way only he can write.

This is a languid novel about the lost love of a late father through emerging teen independence, set amid the broad beauty of North England, and the sumptuous rainfall of the South American tropics. Amanita Walmer never knew her father, the renowned botanist Dr Virgil Walmer, as he died weeks before she was born. When Amanita travels up to Durham University to begin her undergraduate degree she realises many of her home comforts and old friendships have vanished, and has to face up to her life as a single woman navigating challenging studies and the world of lustful men, previously unknown to her. When old friend from Amberleigh Samuel Mills pays a visit to her dorm room, her suppressed desire for male companionship and her longing for home combine in a passionate outburst. They begin to date. As Amanita's year progresses, a rain-cloud of grief for her lost father begins to rear its head, and she discovers that she has always missed what she never had. However when she is suddenly called home to Amberleigh to attend a family incident, her growing confidence is set into stark relief. Confronted with the love she feels for her family, and the path she has built for herself, can Amanita summon the latent courage she inherited from her intrepid father, and allow her own independent spirit to finally bloom? In this eloquent exploration of burgeoning independence, Amanita Walmer and the Amberleigh Flower portrays what it is like to leave home for the first time, the strains put on friendships that were once thought eternal, and the lasting marks of an unknown fatherhood.

This is a dark story of brotherhood and betrayal set in a small North Yorkshire village in a damp cold winter in the late 1990s. Tim Gaunt and Danny Canterbury take a summer trip to Ibiza to escape the shackles of full-time education, and the brewing crimes occurring at home in Amberleigh. Embarking on the summer holiday of a lifetime, these two proxy brothers cannot wait to explore the nightlife, booze and girls together. However at the end of the trip it becomes clear only one of them can be victorious in his romantic quest. Back home, Tim becomes seduced by sex, drugs and rock and roll, and drops out of his university course to get a job and play in a band. However the new path he has chosen proves unpredictable. As his new, older girlfriend begins to dominate him, old ghosts start to reemerge and he come face to face with demons from his past. Unable to predict where this new path will lead him, and confused by the strains put on his friendship with Danny, Tim becomes persuaded to join forces with a group of criminals intent on wreaking havoc not just in North Yorkshire, but Amberleigh too. As Tim begins to fathom the enormity of the decision he has taken, is he able to resist the unwitting betrayal lying in wait to claim his future, or can he uncover the concealed road to redemption? In the penultimate book of Dominic Jericho’s coming-of-age series, Timothy Gaunt and the Wigginton Grave leads Danny’s long-time best friend to an earth-shattering revelation about his present identity and his future fate.