Robert and Alice are 15-year-old twins, who live in a big house in the country. The school year is drawing to a close, and a hot summer begins. For Robert, everything in his life feels wrong: his family, his friends, particularly his embarrassing sister Alice. Then Nick appears, dazzling, devil-may-care, extraordinary, offering an unexpected friendship. Robert is thrilled by the attention, and his sense of dislocation with the rest of his life grows. In the suffocating heat, heavy with boredom and frustration, he hangs about waiting for Nick who turns up only occasionally, but always promising great things. He begins to encourage Robert to give in to the spiteful part of his nature: letting bulls into a field to frighten his father's friend, setting hay bales on fire, and even killing a baby bird.

As the summer wears on, an old homeless man is occasionally seen roaming around the farm, giving all who come across him an inexplicable feeling of revulsion and dread and a sense of mounting foreboding. The conflicting fascination and fear of Nick draw events towards their climax. It is only Alice who clearly recognises Nick for what he is, and can hope to save her brother ...

There are 208 pages in this book. This book was published 2003 by Hachette Children's Group .

Josephine Poole was born in London. Her first children's book, A Dream in the House was published by Hutchinson in 1961, after the birth of her second child, and she has continued to published highly acclaimed children's book ever since. She lives in Somerset with her husband. Angela Barrett studied illustration at the Royal College of Art and after graduating in 1980, she began an acclaimed career in children's book illustration. Angela was winner of the Smarties Award in 1988. She lives in London.