Showing results by author "Joseph Delaney" in All Categories

As the Spook's apprentice, Thomas Ward's first duty is to protect the County from ghosts, boggarts, and other dangerous creatures. But now his mother has come back from her homeland to seek his help. One of the most dangerous of the old witches, Ordeen, is about to return to earth, bringing with her suffering and devastation. Tom's mother has mustered a powerful army - including Tom's friend Alice, the Pendle witches, and the assassin Grimalkin - to confront Ordeen.

Crafty and his friends have already faced dozens of horrifying aberrations during their time as Castle Gate Grubs - assistants to the mysterious guild of Gatemancers, who fight against the terrifying Shole. But the real battle is only just beginning. New and even more dangerous aberrations are appearing all the time, and worse yet, it seems someone from within the Castle is helping them attack. And when an old enemy returns to give Crafty a disturbing warning, it seems time might be running out for all of them....

Following the first year of his apprenticeship as an Arena 13 combatant, Leif seeks information from his late father's people. There he learns more about the man, who was the greatest arena fighter ever seen. The man who came so close to destroying the demon Hob but paid a terrible price for every victory. Leif returns to the fighting floor with a renewed hunger for revenge. But can he remain focused on his training as his passion for his master's daughter, Kwin, grows?

The first book in the exhilarating new fantasy sequence from Joseph Delaney, the multimillion-selling author of The Spook's Apprentice, the inspiration for the movie Seventh Son. Welcome to Arena 13. Here warriors fight. Death is never far away.... Leif has one ambition: to become the best fighter in the notorious Arena 13. Here punters place wagers on which fighter will draw first blood. And in grudge matches, they bet on which fighter will die.

Thomas Ward has spent two years as the Spook's apprentice. He's faced unimaginable peril, and survived. But a new danger has emerged: an ancient water witch, Bloodeye, is roaming the County intent on destroying everything in her path. To strengthen his skills, Tom is sent to the far north to train with the demanding Bill Arkwright. Will Tom's new bag of tricks be enough to overcome a critical mistake that leaves him confronting Bloodeye on his own?

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Beast Awakens by Joseph Delaney, read by Lee Ingleby. They heard shouting and cries of fear. Crafty looked down the slope and realised what had happened to cause so much panic. Without warning, the dark wall of the Shole had advanced. Crafty can't remember a time before the Shole - the terrifying mist that has engulfed most of Britain, leaving those trapped in it to either die or be transformed into horrifying monsters: the aberrations.

Only Thomas Ward is left. He's the last hope; the last apprentice. Can Thomas succeed? Will he learn the difference between a benign witch and a malevolent one? Does the Spook's warning against girls with pointy shoes include Alice? And what will happen if Thomas accidentally frees Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the county?

I must be brave. I must do what has to be done. I am Alice. Alice is the most powerful witch the county has ever seen. She may one day be the most evil. But Alice is also the best friend - and true love - of Tom Ward. Together they work to defeat the Fiend - the world's greatest evil - once and for all. They have nearly everything they need, all except a blade hidden in the Dark, the Fiend's domain. So Alice ventures there to find it. She faces the most terrifying creatures in existence. And she once again battles old enemies who bear grudges: Bony Lizzie, Bloodeye, and more.

Thomas Ward is the apprentice for the local Spook, who captures witches and drives away ghosts. As the weather gets colder and the nights draw in, the Spook receives an unexpected visitor. Tom doesn't know who the stranger is or what he wants, but the Spook suddenly decides it's time to travel to his winter house, Anglezarke. Tom has heard it will be a bleak, forbidding place, and that menacing creatures are starting to stir somewhere on the moors nearby.

Tom Ward is now spook of the county, and with his apprentice, Jenny, he continues the fight against boggarts, witches, and terrifying new creatures of the dark. Together with the witch assassin Grimalkin, Tom and Jenny lead an army into battle against a dangerous enemy - but it all goes catastrophically wrong. The situation seems hopeless until Alice - Tom's lost love and a powerful witch - appears. But Alice had turned to the dark: Can Tom trust her now?

When young novice monk Brother Beowulf is sent to spy on Spook Johnson, he has no idea of the trouble he's about to find himself in. Johnson boasts to Wulf of his battles against demonic creatures and even seems to imprison local witches, though Wulf is sceptical. But the monsters Johnson claims to fight turn out to be very real indeed, and soon Wulf is forced to seek help from another young Spook, Tom Ward, who terrifies and charms him in equal measure. But the forces of the dark are many and it's not long until Wulf and Tom realise they've bitten off far more than they can chew.

In his job as the county's spook, 17-year-old Thomas Ward is used to battling boggarts, witches, and other creatures of the dark. But now he and his apprentice, Jenny, must team up with former rivals and enemies to fight the evil Kobalos warriors intent on destroying the county. The fight has cost the life of a strong ally, Grimalkin, the witch assassin. Determined to end the war with the demons, Tom leads Jenny and Alice to Pendle for one last epic clash. Loyalties will be tested, alliances will be broken, and not everyone will survive.

The Spook and his apprentice, Thomas Ward, deal with the dark. Together they rid the county of witches, ghosts, and boggarts. But now there's some unfinished business to attend to in Priestown. Deep in the catacombs of the cathedral lurks a creature the Spook has never been able to defeat, a force so evil that the whole county is in danger of being corrupted by its powers. The Bane!

The Spook and his apprentice, Thomas Ward, have returned to the county after a long journey and a hard battle. But their troubles are far from over. Their home has been over-run by enemy soldiers. The Spook's house is in ruins, the boggart protecting it has fled, and the malicious witches imprisoned in the gardens have escaped. Tom, Alice, and the Spook must flee, too, across the ocean to the island of Mona. And it's on Mona that this small band fighting against the dark will face an old enemy grown terrifyingly powerful.

Wulf is at war - war against the Dark. As Pan's soldier and champion, it's his responsibility to fight for what is right. An early Winter has come to the County, threatening its people with starvation - but there is an even more dangerous foe to face. A demon is trying to become the next ruler of the dark. He has many names but one of them is Loki, the Trickster God. Loki has many, terrible powers - but his most deadly weapon is the one that controls all Wulf's own power.

Years have passed since Wulf and Tilda vanished from the County. Alice and Tom have given up hope of ever seeing them again—until a terrible enemy from the past forces them to take drastic action, and reach out through time in a bid for help. Now Wulf faces the greatest and most powerful demon who has ever walked the Dark: the Fiend. He will have to use all his powers—and gather some new ones—to have even a chance of survival.

Something is terrorizing the villages of the county. People are dying - covered in blood, their faces frozen in fear. But with not a wound on their bodies. Battling creatures of the dark is the job of the local spook, but 17-year-old Thomas Ward never finished his apprenticeship. It will be no easy task to earn the trust of the villagers and to defeat a monster that no one has ever seen. Yet Jenny - a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter - knows an awful lot about this new evil. And she's willing to share what she's learned with Tom…if he takes her on as his apprentice.

Thomas Ward is the apprentice for the local Spook, who banishes boggarts and drives away ghosts. But now a new danger is threatening Tom's world: the witches are rising and the three most powerful clans are uniting in order to conjure an unimaginable evil. Tom and the Spook set out to stop the witches before they unleash the demon. But when Tom finds himself on his own, he wonders if he has the courage and cunning to defeat the most powerful enemy he has ever encountered.

He's the seventh son of a seventh son. He's the only one who can stop the greatest evil. Tom Ward, the Spook's last apprentice, has everything he needs to vanquish the Fiend, once and for all: the three blades recovered from the dark, the gifts from his witch mother, and the skills he's learned from Master Gregory. And Alice, the one he loves most, is willing to sacrifice herself to fulfill the spell. Or is she? Racing against time, all of Tom's old allies - and old enemies - return. They will clash in a final battle more epic than any he has fought before.

Wulf has left behind his life in the monastery and is now the apprentice to Spook Johnson, assisting him in protecting the county from denizens of the dark - which mainly involves Wulf acting as bait. But Wulf is captured by Hrothgar, a giant with abilities to conjure subservient creatures - or tulpas - from his imagination. And he strongly suspects that Wulf has these abilities, too.