Starblade Chronicles

Girls are dying in mysterious circumstances.... They are found dead in their beds, covered in blood, with a look of pure horror on their faces. Worse still, their ghosts are left to walk the Earth, just waiting for someone to hear the terror that has befallen them. Thomas Ward is the local spook - it’s his job to protect the county from things that go bump in the night. But this is no ordinary haunting, and he finds himself on the path of a dangerous beast that is looking to kill again.

Tom Ward is the Spook, the one person who can defend the county from bloodthirsty creatures of the dark. But he's only 17, and his apprenticeship was cut short when his master died in battle. No one trusts Tom's skill, not till he's proven himself. And a 15-year-old girl named Jenny knows more about the three mysterious deaths in the county than Tom does. She is a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and she wants to be Tom's first apprentice – even though a female Spook is unheard of.

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.

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?

The second terrifying tale in the Spook's spin-off series from best-selling author Joseph Delaney. Thomas Ward was working as the new County Spook, fighting the Dark with his own apprentice. But a new enemy stirred in the north, and Tom's calling required him to leave his home and lead an uprising against a legion of beasts: creatures of the Dark intent on locking the whole Earth in a never-ending winter.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable audiobook edition of Spook's: Dark Assassin by Joseph Delaney, narrated by Gabrielle Glaister, Thomas Judd, Sean Barrett and Olivia Mace. The third chilling instalment in the new Spook's legend.... An assassin lurks in the darkness between earth and oblivion - but who are they, and what is their mission? The people of the County live in fear of the beasts bent on bringing the war to their home.