Nightmare Stairs; Jacqueline Hyde

Swindells is a master of the conventions of the fast paced, cliff hanging adventure story (see for example Daz 4 Zoe, and the Carnegie medal winning Stone Cold) and in these books he describes in first person, page turning detail how the conventional lives of very ordinary girls are catastrophically disrupted by intrusions of crime and the supernatural.

In Nightmare Stairs, Kirsty's persistent dream of falling down stairs convinces her that she is the reincarnation of her own grandma who died in such an accident - but in the dream she is pushed. Kirsty's detective work succeeds in building a case against a family member, but the reality of the past turns out to be even more distressing than the dreams suggested.

Jacqueline Hyde is a stereotypical model pupil, resentful of her parents' preoccupation with their shop, but otherwise serene, until she discover an old fashioned bottle in her Grandma's attic. She inhales from it, and unleashes from within herself an appetite for evil. 'Jacqueline Bad' manifests herself in acts mischief and defiance, but soon acquires a capacity for more serious malevolence.

Both of these novels are written in a fairly convincing vernacular that many children will find sympathetic, and in both the chapters are brief and skilfully paced. I found Jacqueline Hyde the more compelling, perhaps because its central theme is more relevant to children's lives. The story's frighteningly vivid allegory of addiction and the moral corruption that comes in its wake is not made explicit until the closing paragraph, but it drags at the reader's consciousness throughout the book. The parallel with Stevenson's masterpiece is not laboured, but an intriguing allusion to it is made in the closing pages, and perhaps this fine thriller could provide older readers with a motivation for turning to the original.