Derek Richard Denton: 5 books

Teenager James Lovell, strapped for cash as usual, is desperate to buy an affordable birthday present for his cousin Alison, and time is short. When a free DVD computer game is pressed upon him by an unsavoury-looking youth he meets in a computer store, he little realises what a dangerous gift he...

A balloon, a thing of delight available in any one of a range of dazzling colours, is really a simple thing. Go to almost any fair and you will see them at stalls, tethered like wild creatures. For a modest sum you can buy one and, if the fancy takes you, you may set it free. So, look at them...

This is a love story. It is also, as the title suggests, a ghost story. The setting is a rambling old house called Rakers Wood. It has a sinister reputation that the new owners, Carol and Adam Baker, have yet to hear about. By the time they move in it is already too late to avoid what is coming. The...

This is a modern fairy story for bright children of all ages, from nine to ninety-two, and upwards. The king of Mulrovia is stony broke. That is bad enough, but he has a secret enemy living right opposite the palace gates. The witch, Tamina, has devoted half her life plotting to do away with both...

Jake Denver, accountant, should have heeded that inner voice warning him off: he didn't. The tax problem he was to fix for his cousin was a mare's nest. And the woman, wasn't she just too damned sophisticated to be using a PI with a shabby office in a run-down neighbourhood? Here lies Jake Denver, simpleton. That could have been his epitaph. It very nearly was, thanks to that woman.