The Terror of Hilltop House by Dan Smith ~ Guest Post

I’m thrilled to bring you a very special Christmas gift – a guest post by author Dan Smith about his spine-chilling new book, The Terror of Hilltop House (to be published by Barrington Stoke in January 2023). Treat yourself with a preorder now so you don’t miss a single second of this creepy tale!

There’s something comforting about a scary story. I know that sounds strange, but at school I looked forward to the library receiving the latest edition of The Unexplained magazine so I could read all about the weird world. The most exciting novels were always the forbidden, crumpled copies that passed from person to person and had delicious titles like The Rats, The Fog, or The Exorcist. I loved those dog-eared pages marking the ‘best bits’. In the dorm at night, when I was most likely to feel homesick (yep, boarding school) my brother read scary stories to entertain me and the other boys. Then, as a teenager, I lived on a diet of Stephen King, Shaun Hutson, and Clive Barker.

As an author I have written all kinds of stories, but my fourth published novel for young readers, Below Zero, is a science fiction horror story set in a deserted base in Antarctica. It was that story which caught the attention of the brilliant Barrington Stoke, who asked if I would be interested in writing something scary for them. I jumped at the chance. Of course, I did. Writing for Barrington Stoke is a badge of honour, because they bring well-written, high-interest, accessible stories to even the most reluctant readers. Also, because I had the chance to write exactly the kind of story I would have wanted to read when I was younger.

That book was The Invasion of Crooked Oak. Inspired by my love of a story called The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, it introduces three characters who are obsessed with the weird world around us. Pete, Nancy, and Krish are always on the search for strange phenomena, and they live in exactly the right place, because the village of Crooked Oak is plagued by weird occurrences.

Something that was important to me when planning the story, was the threat that my heroes would face. It had to be real. You see, growing up, I loved Scooby-do (who didn’t?) but I was always disappointed at the end of each cartoon when the gang exposed the monster for what it really was – someone wearing a costume. It was always smoke and mirrors. So, it felt important that my story should give the reader a real monster. A real threat. But it had to be believable. It had to feel as if it could really happen. So my story drew inspiration from real science to create the scares. I fact, all the Crooked Oak stories have their roots firmly  attached to something that is real. There are no ghosts or devils in Crooked Oak, but science gone wrong delivers more than enough scares!

I had no idea at the time, that The Invasion of Crooked Oak would become the first in a series of stand-alone novellas known as The Crooked Oak Mysteries, but this year sees the publication of the fourth title in the series, The Terror of Hilltop House, and you’re going to love it … if you’re brave enough to read it.

The series has gone from strength to strength, seeing my three heroes faced with mind-controlling fungus, a forest-dwelling beast, venomous social spiders, and carnivorous plants! It’s a joy to write them and it’s so much fun to see the excitement in children’s eyes when I visit schools and talk about ‘scary stuff’. I feel that we are seeing a rekindling of interest in scary stories, and I’m thrilled to be a part of that. I’m especially honoured to be working alongside Barrington Stoke and Chris King, whose fantastic illustrations give the novellas a cool graphic novel edge. Together, we are bringing accessible books to everyone who likes a scary story. But be warned, Crooked Oak is not a place you’d want to visit for a quiet weekend away.

Dan Smith, December 2022

Read my reviews of the other Crooked Oak Mysteries below:

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