BOOKS
Ages 8 - 12
The first in a new madcap, hilarious series about Bridget Vanderpuff, whipsmart inventor and amateur sleuth with a taste for adventure. It's a recipe for fun with mystery, villainy, cake and sprinkles of silliness, heart and hope.
Bridget Baxter is the very last orphan at the Orphanage for Errant Childs, left at the mercy of the awful Miss Acrid and her foul-smelling fish sandwiches. Miss Acrid's mission is to make Bridget's life a misery. But Bridget is more than a match for her.
When kindly Mr Vanderpuff arrives at the Orphanage in search of a child to care for, Bridget thinks her luck has finally turned. Mr Vanderpuff is the village baker, and his shop is a world of wonders. But they soon discover that Bridget is absolutely terrible at baking. When Miss Acrid returns for the ultimate revenge, Bridget must open the Locked and Secret Door, navigate Miss Acrid's spiderweb of booby traps and use her unique baking skills to save herself - and Mr Vanderpuff - from certain disaster.
Join Bridget as she dons her chef whites and gets the kwassongs at the ready... Baking isn't such a piece of cake.
Released August 31st, 2023!
Belle-on-Sea is getting ready for the Night of the Hungry Ghosts, the spookiest time of the year. Mr Vanderpuff's bake will be the centrepiece of the whole parade, but he needs a new creation and he's totally stumped. To make matters worse, salty old seadog, Captain Lufty, and his Hat Rat, Barry, have warned that something is coming to Belle-on-Sea. Something terrible.
When a ghost train is seen rattling into town, and people start to go missing - first the librarian, then the Mayor - Bridget and Tom begin tracking the train's tracks, delighted to be in the thick of another mystery.
Then the unthinkable happens: the ghost train takes Mr Vanderpuff! Someone - or something - is out to destroy Belle-on-Sea. But they've forgotten one important detail.
This is Bridget's town.
Bridget must save the missing people from their perilous prisons, rescue the parade, and come up with an idea for Mr Vanderpuff's Hungry Ghosts bake, before it's too late.
Find out about Martin's other - multi-award nominated - books below!
Age 11+
The Danék is a wild, treacherous river, and the Fobisher family has tended it for generations--clearing it of ice and weed, making sure boats can get through, and fishing corpses from its bleak depths. Wulliam's father, the current Riverkeep, is proud of this work. Wull dreads it. And in one week, when he comes of age, he will have to take over.
Then the unthinkable happens. While recovering a drowned man, Wull's father is pulled under--and when he emerges, he is no longer himself. A dark spirit possesses him, devouring him from the inside. In an instant, Wull is Riverkeep. And he must care for his father, too.
When he hears that a cure for his father lurks in the belly of a great sea-dwelling beast known as the mormorach, he embarks on an epic journey down the river that his family has so long protected--but never explored. Along the way, he faces death in any number of ways, meets people and creatures touched by magic and madness and alchemy, and finds courage he never knew he possessed.
Age 13+
An atmospheric, chilling page turner, "for fans of Stand by Me and Stranger Things" (MTV).
Sep, Arkle, Mack, Lamb and Hadley: five friends thrown together in the hot, sultry summer of 1982. When they discover an ancient stone box hidden in the forest, they decide to each make a sacrifice: something special to them, committed to the box for ever. And they make a pact: they will never return to the box at night; they'll never visit it alone; and they'll never take back their offerings.
Four years later, a series of strange and terrifying events take place. Someone broke the rules, and now everyone has to pay.
But how much are they willing to sacrifice?
Age 9+
In a city overrun by war, Luka doesn't have time for games. So when his little sister asks him to care for her faeries as she's sent away to escape the air raids, he dismisses her childishness. But it's already more than he can bear to see her go, so he promises to do as she asks.
A promise that Luka quickly breaks. In an empty home, anger and frustration get the better of him. Instead of leaving an offering for the faeries, he flings their saucer of milk as far out the window as he can. Big mistake. The faeries are not only very real, but they're more terrifying than he could have ever imagined. And now they want revenge.
With the aid of his new friends - a savvy techie, a quiet evacuee, and an unlikely ally - Luka has three days to turn his house into a fortress. But his problems are even more complicated than he thought: it's not just the faeries who are out to get the Wild Huntsboys...
If Luka fails, those closest to him will pay the price--and time is running out.
