'It's going to be a long, hard, cruel winter and there couldn't be a worse place to spend it.' As the nights draw in the Spook decides to travel to his winter house. His apprentice, Tom, hates the desolate place. There are feral witches in the cellar, menacing creatures stirring on the nearby moors and a sinister stranger threatening Tom's master. What does the mysterious stranger want? Is the Spook's past catching up with him? And what dangers will Tom face if his master's secrets are revealed? The third chilling tale in the Wardstone Chronicles, the series that inspired the forthcoming movie The Seventh Son, starring Jeff Bridges, Ben Barnes and Julianne Moore.

 

 

This book is part of a book series called The Wardstone Chronicles .

This book has been graded for interest at 9-14 years.

There are 480 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2009 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .

Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 24 countries. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was turned into a major motion picture in 2015.