Description
Twelve-year-old Alice England is curious, truthful and smart, but when you work in your father’s funeral home and you get messages from the dead, it can be difficult to make friends.
When she comes across the peculiar case of George Devenish, who was allergic to sunlight, Alice is convinced there’s more to his death than meets the eye.
With the help of George’s niece, ‘Violet the Vampire’, who shares her uncle’s allergy, and a boy named Cal, who has secrets of his own, Alice begins to investigate. Who were the teenagers under the dock when George died? How is the sinister Doctor Grampian involved? And what about George’s wife, Helen, whose baking is delicious but possibly poisonous?
It seems the truth of George’s death may never see the light of day – unless Alice and her companions can put the clues together and solve a mystery much bigger than anybody expected.
More Information
Rights Information
World Rights Available.
Rights Sold: World English Language ex ANZ tbc
Endorsements
"The Deadly Daylight is an intriguing mystery that explores lots of interesting ideas". RA Spratt
“Quirky, dark and delightful, I loved trying to solve this truly engrossing mystery.” Shirley Marr
Reviews
'In Ash Harrier’s debut middle-grade novel, The Deadly Daylight, 12-year-old Alice England helps her father dress corpses in the family funeral home. She finds that certain personal objects are ‘resonant’: they allow her to see key moments from a deceased person’s life. One such object leads her to believe that her classmate Violet’s uncle did not, in fact, die of natural causes. With a reluctant Violet in tow, Alice sets out to discover the true circumstances of her uncle’s death. As well as being a charming mystery, The Deadly Daylight also functions as a sweet and gentle lesson in empathy and difference. Both Alice and Violet have a physical disability—Alice’s leg was damaged in utero and Violet is allergic to sunlight—but, refreshingly, Harrier does not approach this as something to be overcome. While their disabilities are central to the girls’ characters, Harrier does not suggest the pair are inspirational for simply living their lives. The girls succeed not because of, or despite, their limitations, but because they are clever and inquisitive; this is disability representation as it should be. The Deadly Daylight is an engaging novel with a full cast of larger-than-life characters, and even I didn’t pick the bad guy! Harrier sets us up nicely for the next book in the series, and readers will be left wanting more.' - Books+ Publishing
'This is an engrossing, entertaining and enchanting novel, written with subtlety, sophistication and style, which older primary school and lower secondary readers, both girls and boys, should thoroughly enjoy. I loved it. I hope Alice and her friends have many more adventures in future Alice England Mystery series titles. Highly recommended.' Magpies Magazine, Russ Merrin
Author Biography
Ash Harrier lives in Perth, Western Australia. She is an Ambassador for the Books in Homes Australia charity, which helps children in disadvantaged circumstances build their home libraries. Ash has a great fondness for puzzles, scientific facts, birds and the smell of dried tea. Some of her favourite pastimes are reading, daydreaming and spending time in the garden with her small flock of hens.
Copyright Information
Copyright text (c) Ash Harrier 2022
Pantera Press
Pantera Press is a young and enthusiastic Australian book publisher, created to champion writing culture and literacy in Australia with a clear community and cultural purpose. We discover and nurture talented Australian writers who are great storytellers. We also publish non-fiction books that matter, and have a quirky imprint designed for millennials, Lost the Plot. From our Australian origins we are now also publishing titles that fit our criteria from around the world. As a social purpose business, we use our profits to fund charities and not-for-profits that encourage reading and work to close the literacy gap in Australia.
View all titlesBibliographic Information
- Publisher Pantera Press
- ISBN/Identifier 9780648987673
- Publication Country or regionAustralia
- FormatPaperback
- Primary Price 16.99 AUD
- Pages296
- ReadershipChildren
- Publish StatusPublished
- Copyright Year2018
- Page size198 x 128 (198 x 128) mm
- SeriesAn Alice England Mystery
- Series Part1
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