The Mystery Of The Darkstone

In The Mystery of the Darkstone Kate and Phil have returned to their ordinary lives but they are no longer ordinary children. As the story begins we find out about one of the plans Phil has concocted to make their humdrum lives more exciting:

...When they returned from their adventure in America, their lives having been altered so irreversibly, Kate and Phil found it difficult to adjust to ordinary life. For Kate it was especially hard to get back in with her friends who, in her absence, had shared many things – things that they talked about endlessly and which, if she were honest, didn’t really interest her. There was little she could tell them about life with Great Aunt Elizabeth as most of it was a secret. When she did talk about flying over the Statue of Liberty in a helicopter or horse riding in Central Park her friends listened quietly but even to Kate it sounded like bragging.

It was difficult in a different way for Phil. He didn’t talk much with his schoolmates but then he never had – his problems were more practical. He constantly had to restrain himself from winning every tackle, scoring every goal and knowing everything before everyone else. His friends knew him as a daydreamer, someone who was a bit on the thin side and untidy. Though still prone to scruffiness or, as Great Aunt Elizabeth called him: a dirt magnet, Phil had changed physically. His bearing was straighter and stronger than before and his demeanour was less vague and dreamy. He couldn’t just slip back into the place he had previously occupied.

And so, for a long time after returning to England, Kate and Phil were happiest in each other’s company and gradually they found ways to make life bearable. After dark brother and sister took to scaling the back of the house and enjoying the freedom of the rooftops. A leap from their back extension took them on to the roof of a row of terraced houses where they played, testing their wits, stamina and strength. Occasionally things went wrong and then life got really interesting. Once, after slipping on the wet tiles and clattering noisily before recovering his balance, Phil had spent half an hour of a moonless night crouched on his neighbour’s roof. Disturbed by the sound of him falling, Mrs Parker had come out and swung a torch around calling, ‘Who’s there?’ The beam of light had passed across his body several times but thanks to his training in advanced virtual invisibility she had not seen him.

But as the school year passed Kate shared more and more with her friends and began to spend less and less time with Phil until eventually she stopped playing on the roof altogether. Phil begged and pleaded but Kate pronounced the roof boring and told Phil to grow up. Once Kate had made her mind up that was it. Phil knew this of course but he could not help himself and carried on wheedling, ‘Why not Kate? Come on, Kate, oh go on pleeease!’ Getting on Kate’s nerves was no compensation for the fun they’d had but for a while it was Phil’s main source of family entertainment. Then one day he had a brilliant idea. He called it ‘The Philip Reynolds End of Term Challenge’. It was very simple: on the last day of term he would meet his sister at the bus stop at the top of the High Street and race her home. Kate agreed on condition that Phil didn’t pester her about anything at all ever again. Phil crossed his fingers behind his back and promised. So far they had had eight of these races and Kate had won every one of them. But this time Phil had chosen a new route and he had been practising. It took him over roofs and necessitated scaling a four-metre wall. It was dangerous in places but it was a shortcut that shaved three and a half minutes off his previous best and, more importantly, three minutes and fifteen seconds off Kate’s. He was in with a chance...
Extract...Want more? Click book link above.
To hear the whole of the first chapter read by the actor Jonathan Kydd click HERE

© Copyright 2008 Val Rutt. All rights reserved.
Animation artwork by Annie Graham



	Kate and Phil Reynolds appear to be an ordinary brother and sister but they have just the special powers Great Aunt Elizabeth needs for a very unusual task. Phil's mission takes him to a school in Africa for difficult boys, where all the pupils are unnaturally well-behaved, while Kate is sent to France. But is she really just going there for a holiday? Could the evil Lorabeth Lampton have returned? It's down to Phil to find out – and to uncover the truth of The Mystery Of The Darkstone. Fearless photo by Phil Graham

<< HOME	In The Mystery of the Darkstone Kate and Phil have returned to their ordinary lives but they are no longer ordinary children. As the story begins we find out about one of the plans Phil has concocted to make their humdrum lives more exciting: ...When they returned from their adventure in America, their lives having been altered so irreversibly, Kate and Phil found it difficult to adjust to ordinary life. For Kate it was especially hard to get back in with her friends who, in her absence, had shared many things – things that they talked about endlessly and which, if she were honest, didn’t really interest her. There was little she could tell them about life with Great Aunt Elizabeth as most of it was a secret. When she did talk about flying over the Statue of Liberty in a helicopter or horse riding in Central Park her friends listened quietly but even to Kate it sounded like bragging. It was difficult in a different way for Phil. He didn’t talk much with his schoolmates but then he never had – his problems were more practical. He constantly had to restrain himself from winning every tackle, scoring every goal and knowing everything before everyone else. His friends knew him as a daydreamer, someone who was a bit on the thin side and untidy. Though still prone to scruffiness or, as Great Aunt Elizabeth called him: a dirt magnet, Phil had changed physically. His bearing was straighter and stronger than before and his demeanour was less vague and dreamy. He couldn’t just slip back into the place he had previously occupied. And so, for a long time after returning to England, Kate and Phil were happiest in each other’s company and gradually they found ways to make life bearable. After dark brother and sister took to scaling the back of the house and enjoying the freedom of the rooftops. A leap from their back extension took them on to the roof of a row of terraced houses where they played, testing their wits, stamina and strength. Occasionally things went wrong and then life got really interesting. Once, after slipping on the wet tiles and clattering noisily before recovering his balance, Phil had spent half an hour of a moonless night crouched on his neighbour’s roof. Disturbed by the sound of him falling, Mrs Parker had come out and swung a torch around calling, ‘Who’s there?’ The beam of light had passed across his body several times but thanks to his training in advanced virtual invisibility she had not seen him. But as the school year passed Kate shared more and more with her friends and began to spend less and less time with Phil until eventually she stopped playing on the roof altogether. Phil begged and pleaded but Kate pronounced the roof boring and told Phil to grow up. Once Kate had made her mind up that was it. Phil knew this of course but he could not help himself and carried on wheedling, ‘Why not Kate? Come on, Kate, oh go on pleeease!’ Getting on Kate’s nerves was no compensation for the fun they’d had but for a while it was Phil’s main source of family entertainment. Then one day he had a brilliant idea. He called it ‘The Philip Reynolds End of Term Challenge’. It was very simple: on the last day of term he would meet his sister at the bus stop at the top of the High Street and race her home. Kate agreed on condition that Phil didn’t pester her about anything at all ever again. Phil crossed his fingers behind his back and promised. So far they had had eight of these races and Kate had won every one of them. But this time Phil had chosen a new route and he had been practising. It took him over roofs and necessitated scaling a four-metre wall. It was dangerous in places but it was a shortcut that shaved three and a half minutes off his previous best and, more importantly, three minutes and fifteen seconds off Kate’s. He was in with a chance... Extract...Want more? Click book link above. To hear the whole of the first chapter read by the actor Jonathan Kydd click HERE © Copyright 2008 Val Rutt. All rights reserved. Animation artwork by Annie Graham	Read Val's very own blog regularly updated HERE
Skyline image by Nick Stearn