Showing results by author "Catherine Jinks" in All Categories

Contrary to popular opinion, vampires are not sexy, romantic, or powerful. In case you hadn’t noticed, vampires are dead. And the only ones who don’t get staked are the ones who avoid attacking people, admit they have a problem, and join a support group. Just ask Nina Harrison - fanged at 15, and still living with her mother. She hasn’t aged since 1973, and the highlight of her sickly, couch-bound life is probably her Tuesday-night group meeting, which she spends with a miserable bunch of fellow sufferers, being lectured at.

When Tobias Richard Vandevelde wakes up in a hospital with no memory of the night before, his horrified mother tells him that he was found unconscious.... At Featherdale Wildlife Park. In a dingo pen. He assumes that his two best friends are somehow responsible, until the mysterious Reuben turns up, claiming that Toby has a rare and dangerous condition. Next thing he knows, Toby finds himself involved with a strange bunch of sickly insomniacs who seem convinced that he needs their help.

Cadel Piggott has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds. At seven, he was illegally hacking into computers. Now he's 14 and studying for his World Domination degree, taking classes like embezzlement, misinformation, forgery, and infiltration at the institute founded by criminal mastermind Dr. Phineas Darkkon. Although Cadel may be advanced beyond his years, at heart he's a lonely kid.

After abandoning a life full of deception and mistrust, 15-year-old Cadel has finally found his niche. He has a proper home, good friends, and loving parents. He’s even studying at a real university. But he’s still not safe from Prosper English, who’s now a fugitive from justice and determined to smash everything that Cadel has struggled to build. When Cadel’s nearest and dearest are threatened, he must launch an all-out attack on the man he once viewed as his father. Can Cadel track down Prosper before it’s too late? And what rules will he have to break in the process?

Meg lives alone - a little place in the bush outside town. A perfect place to hide. That’s one of the reasons she offers to shelter Nerine, who’s escaping a violent ex. The other is that Meg knows what it’s like to live with an abusive partner. Nerine is jumpy, and her two little girls are frightened. It tells Meg all she needs to know where they’ve come from, and she’s not all that surprised when Nerine asks her to get hold of a gun. But she knows it’s unnecessary. They’re safe now. Then she starts to wonder about some little things.

Daryl, the baby magpie, has to find his own food. But how?

Another deliciously spooky paranormal mystery for Allie's Ghost Hunters to solve, this time at the Jenolan Caves, where something is on the trail of Allie and her family. Who is waiting in the cave?

Full of suspense, mystery and humor, the books in this series follow Allie as she investigates a number of possibly paranormal events with a mix of logic, intelligence and teenage attitude. Who is writing on the walls? We moved into our new house because Mum liked the vibes. But those vibes turned scary when ghostly writing started appearing on the walls of Bethan's room. Mum tried a few new-age tricks, but couldn't stop the creepy nightmares.

Eleven-year-old Marcus hates the beach. So he is not happy when his mum, Holly, drags him to Diamond Beach for a vacation. Once there, Holly meets Coco, her friend from childhood. She is there with her husband and their kids: teenage Newt, pizza-loving Edison, and the family robot, Prot. Opening a door into the basement of Holly's caravan, Edison discovers an amazing amusement park. Whoever opens a door in the basement finds themselves in their dream vacation. But when the dream becomes impossible to escape, it all begins to feel more like a nightmare.

Who is haunting the cabin? After Eglantine vanished, I thought I was through with ghosts. Then I went on a school excursion to Hill end and found myself investigating a whole bunch of them. First there was the ghost of Granny Evans, pacing around the museum. And Eustace Harrow smashing things up in Taylor's Cottage. But when two of my classmates disappeared, I realized things were about to get serious.

A horrible holiday? You bet! A car full of smelly nappies, a constipated dog... Can anything else go wrong?

While scavenging in the desert, Jansi stumbles across PIM, a stelcorp starship, embedded in the sand. PIM is damaged and needs the boy's help, but Jansi has never encountered a starship before, much less one capable of thought and expression. Together they forge an unlikely friendship, until a Stelcorp shuttle arrives, threatening PIM with destruction. For the boy and the starship, there will be no future unless they triumph against the galaxy's mightiest force.

In the third Allie's Ghost Hunters adventure, 11-year-old Allie Gebhardt and her Exorcists' Club hold a séance for schoolmate Bettina - and discover, in the process, that there's a strange presence in Bettina's house.

A shocking and gruesome murder wakes an ancient evil in outback Australia. A truck driver, a schoolboy, and a retired couple on their dream holiday are among a group of travelers caught up in a supernatural time loop. Trapped on a long stretch of the Silver City Highway, just outside Broken Hill, they enter a nightmarish journey from which there seems no escape.

As a bogler's apprentice, 10-year-old Birdie has faced down plenty of monsters lurking in the chimneys, wells, and other dark places of Victorian London. She serves as bait, singing sweetly to lure the bogles out so her master, the well-seasoned Go-Devil Man Alfred Bunce, can kill them with his trusty spear. Enter the wealthy folklorist Miss Eames, who is determined to find more scientific ways of drawing out the monsters, and Birdie fears that her livelihood may be threatened by the well-meaning lady.

A lot has changed for Cadel Piggott recently. Everything he thought he knew about his life has been blown to bits. In some cases, literally. He still has a genius IQ and a fascination with systems of all kinds, but he's no longer in cahoots with Dr. Darkkon, the most powerful criminal mastermind in the world, and he’s no longer the star pupil at the Axis Institute for World Domination. In fact, now he’s in foster care, awaiting the trial at which he'll have to testify against evil genius Prosper English, a man who was once believed to be Cadel’s father.

With the plague of bogles in Victorian London barely contained, bogle hunter Alfred Bunce needs all the help he can get. So Ned Roach becomes a bogler's apprentice, luring child-eating monsters from their lairs just like his friends, Jem and Birdie. It's dangerous work that takes Ned into mysterious and hidden parts of the city. Yet times in London are changing; as the Machine Age emerges, the very existence of bogles is questioned, and the future of bogling is in jeopardy.

Jem Barbary spent most of his early life picking pockets for a wily old crook named Sarah Pickles - until she betrayed him. Now Jem wants revenge, but first he needs a new job. Luckily Alfred the bogler, the man who kills the child-eating monsters that hide in the shadows of Victorian London, needs a new apprentice.

Robyn Ayres works as the camp caretaker on Finch Island, a former leper colony off the coast of Queensland. Her current clients are a group of ex-military men who run a tough-love program for troubled teens. The latest crop looks like the usual mix of bad boys and sad boys. Then Robyn takes a second look at a kid called Darren. Last time she saw him his name was Aaron, and Robyn was his primary school teacher. And she was somehow at the centre of a vicious small-town custody battle involving his terrifying grandmother.

Jane is a contact tracer. She has to call a lot of people and some of them don’t want to talk. Various reasons – tax or immigration issues, infidelity. Domestic abuse. Jane knows all about that. She and her daughter Tara have spent years in hiding from Tara’s manipulative and terrifying ex. Now, as Jane talks to a close contact, she realises the woman on the phone is scared of the same man – and he’s close. Too close.