Books

The Crowfield Demon

Published in the UK April 4th 2011

Due to be published in hardback in the US in February 2012

Cover illustration by David Frankland

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In this second Crowfield adventure, it is March 1348. Evil lurks in Crowfield Abbey and the building is starting to collapse. Fay creatures have fled the surrounding forest in terror.

Repairs begin and William is given the job of lifting floor tiles in a haunted side chapel. There he finds a box from an earlier pagan time containing a small wooden bowl, covered with strange warnings and symbols.

The bowl is cursed and a hideous demon is unleashed within the Abbey’s walls, that will wreak unspeakable havoc. Can Will and his friends summon help in time or is it the end of Crowfield forever?

 

The Crowfield Curse

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Will knows a secret.

Somewhere in the forest, behind the abbey where he lives, is a grave.

And buried deep in the snow is an angel.

But how can an angel die? What has it to do with the monks of Crowfield Abbey, who have taken care of Will since he was orphaned? And why does Will get the feeling that when he looks out, something hidden in the dusk is staring back at him?

On a bitter winter’s day in the year 1347, 14-year-old Will Paynel is sent to the forest to gather wood. He stumbles across and rescues a creature caught a trap – a hob, who comes to share with him a terrible secret. Somewhere in the forest near Crowfield Abbey, an angel lies buried. With the arrival of two strangers to the abbey, the mystery deepens. Will and the hob are drawn into a dangerous world of Old Magic, a bitter feud and ancient secrets. Will needs to unravel the truth and put right an age-old wrong if he is to survive, and time is running out…

 

Shortlisted for the Times Children’s Fiction Competition 2008.

Shortlisted for the Waterstone’s Children’s Prize 2010.

Selected for the 2010 Booktrust Booked Up scheme.

Shortlisted for the Gateshead Children’s Book Award 2011.

Shortlisted for the Coventry Inspiration Book Awards 2011.

A 2011 USBBY Outstanding International Book.

New York Public Library’s “100 Titles for Reading and Sharing”.

 ‘…a real page turner…it belongs in the same dark place as The Spook’s Apprentice.’  Joseph Delaney.

*”A wondrous mystery.” –Kirkus, starred review.

*”Suspenseful and spooky…with an edgy battle between good and evil.” –School Library Journal, starred review.

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-8–Set in England in the winter of 1347, this suspenseful and spooky story will thrill readers who loved Joseph Delaney’s “The Last Apprentice” series (HarperCollins). Fourteen-year-old William, whose family perished in a fire 18 months earlier, works as a servant at the local monastery in exchange for his room and board, meager as it is. While gathering firewood, he discovers a creature caught in a trap and saves its life. The hobgoblin tells him that he can only be seen by those with the Sight, a gift the boy did not know he possessed. As the hob recovers from his wounds, Will encounters a mystery that shakes him to his core. There is an angel secretly buried in the nearby woodlands, and a visitor to the abbey, a leper, is determined to find it. For reasons unclear to the boy, Mr. Bone insists that Will help accomplish this goal. With fascinating attention to detail and an edgy battle between evil and good, Walsh sweeps readers almost effortlessly into another time and place. By the close of the novel, they are hoping for more, and the ending suggests that more is to come. A time table of daily life in the abbey and a glossary of monastic terms are included.Kathy Kirchoefer, Prince Georges County Memorial Library System, New Carrollton, MD
© Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.

 

From Booklist

William isn’t exactly happy with his life as a servant at Crowfield Abbey, but with his family dead in a fire, he knows he is lucky to have somewhere to lay his head. One day, as he is gathering wood in the forest, he comes upon a small creature caught in a trap. It’s a hob, and being able to see it is the first indication that things are about to mystically and magically change. Walsh’s debut, about a kind boy who becomes involved in a fey war, is straightforward enough, albeit dotted with evil curses, dead angels, and dark places. What sets this apart is how Walsh expertly mixes the fantastical with the humdrum necessities of medieval life. Readers will get a real sense of the backbreaking work required for existence (including one particularly eye-opening look at butchering a pig). A climactic scene does not disappoint, and those who may have guessed that Will’s adventures are just beginning won’t be let down. Grades 5-8. –Ilene Cooper

Published in the UK January4th 2010. ISBN: 978-1-906427-15-3

Paperback edition published in the US  January 1st 2012.

Cover illustration by David Frankland.