A boy arrives at a remote village in the dead of night. His name is Ludlow Fitch—and he is running from a most terrible past. What he is about to learn is that in this village is the life he has dreamed of—a safe place to live, and a job, as the assistant to a mysterious pawnbroker who trades people's deepest, darkest secrets for cash. Ludlow's job is to neatly transcribe the confessions in an ancient leather-bound tome: The Black Book of Secrets.Ludlow yearns to trust his ...

Pin Carpue is on his own in the world. His mother is dead and his father is missing after being labeled a suspect in a rash of murders. Pin finds a job working for the local undertaker as a body watcher, making sure people are really dead before they're buried. The body he's supposed to be watching tonight is currently surrounded by three people engaged in a most unusual ceremony. An old man, a bone magician, and his young female assistant are waking a woman so her grieving fiancé can have...

The town of Opum Oppidulum is home to the freezing Lake Beluarum and its rumored monster. On an island at the center of the lake is an asylum; no one has ever escaped it. So how will Rex, whose father, Ambrose Grammaticus, has been imprisoned there under false pretenses, prove that Ambrose is not insane? And if Rex can free his father, will his evil stepmother drive them both to madness?Higgins' fans will devour this deliciously scary tale, a "polyquel" to her previous books, all of...

A twisted adventure of intrigue, magic and superstition from the bestselling F. E. HigginsDon’t go down to the tar pits, children – for their shores are lined with the wretched wraiths of all the traitors and murderers who have drowned in its bubbling depths. In the shadows of this putrid place, an unlikely new alliance is being formed: they call them The Phenomenals, and only they can save us from a hideous fate that will befall the town if the wraiths escape thei...

When his butterfly-collector father is swindled to within an inch of his life, a vengeful Hector leaves the city of Urbs Umida in pursuit of a fiendish villain with a glass eye. The trail leads to Withypitts Hall, a forbidding Gothic mansion as warped as its inhabitants and their secret schemes. Soon Hector finds himself embroiled in mysterious deeds more poisonous than his worst imaginings, but every twist and turn brings him closer to his revenge . . .

Although Hector Fitzbaudly has always lived a plush life on the posh side of the River Foedus, he's yearned to slip away from his comfortable home and see the seedy side of Urbs Umida. Unfortunately, he gets his chance when a blackmail artist confronts his father with a terrible secret from his past, and Hector finds himself penniless and on the streets. He is determined to get his revenge against the man responsible, who has been a pauper, a gentleman, and an Eyeball Collector—stealing je...

An earthquake has rumbled through the twisted city of Degringolade, stopping the town Kronometer and the infamous Phenomenals in their tracks. Legend has it that if the ancient clock stops ticking a terrible fate will befall the people of Degringolade, and there's no denying that the super-mundane entities of the tar-pits are behaving strangely. They know something that the townspeople don't: deep below the city, something has woken up. And it's hungry . . .

Since his father disappeared under a dark cloud of scandal, Pin Carpue has been alone in the world. His work for the local undertaker keeps him busy, but his life is bleak.Then Pin encounters the Bone Magician, a man who can raise corpses and make the dead speak. As Pin is drawn into an intoxicating world of mystery and intrigue, he becomes suspicious of Juno, the Bone Magician's young assistant. A strange darkness haunts her when the Silver Apple Killer stalks the streets at night - and a...

When Ludlow Fitch's parents cruelly betray him, he steals away to the country. He arrives in a remote village, where he meets the tall and limping figure of Joe Zabbidou - a pawnbroker with a difference. For Joe trades secrets, not goods. Employed as Joe's assistant, Ludlow records the villagers' fiendish confessions in an ancient leather-bound volume: 'The Black Book of Secrets'.There's the gravedigger who has been resurrecting bodies; the butcher who made a mouse-meat pie; the wi...

In the centre of the freezing Lake Beluarum stands an inescapable asylum, enclosed by the sheer cliffs of Drop Rock island. When Ambrose Grammaticus, famous inventor and master engineer, viciously attacks his own son, Rex, he is hauled to the island and imprisoned. Rex knows his evil stepmother, Acantha, is behind his father's 'madness', but how can he prove it? Only the asylum holds the answers…

When his butterfly-collector father is swindled to within an inch of his life, a vengeful Hector leaves the city of Urbs Umida in pursuit of a fiendish villain with a glass eye. The trail leads to Withypitts Hall, a forbidding Gothic mansion as warped as its inhabitants and their secret schemes. Soon Hector finds himself embroiled in mysterious deeds more poisonous than his worst imaginings, but every twist and turn brings him closer to his revenge...

What's the link between poodles and polar bears?Evolution and genetics are like a map for exploring the whole world of living things. Along the way, we've discovered some pretty shocking stuff about the links between fruit flies and people! Trace the history of life right back to our earliest ancestors, and you'll be amazed at what you'll find. In Evolution, Nature and Stuff Glenn Murphy, author of Why is Snot Green?, tells you everything you need to know, with no...