Maurice's family has left for the Middle East: Maurice: asthmatic, plagued by allergies, self-centred, impossible semi-invalid, is sent to live with his great aunt in Brighton, and becomes fascinated by the eerie and romantic old cemetery next door. Asthmatic, plagued by allergies, isolated from the real world around him, he discovers he can enjoy a kind of time travel in there. He dreams of scientific glory, once he's worked out how to control this "scientific phenomenon". But the sights that Maurice sees have been stolen from other eyes; his thrilling experiences of the past are not his own. And the real owners are getting restless. It's dangerous to pick the flowers that grow in King Death's Garden, but despite some alarming warnings, Maurice, who doesn't believe in ghosts, just can't stay away.

A dreadful secret hangs over the deserted house on Roman Road. What is it that keeps drawing Andrei to it? Why is his mother so afraid of the place? And what is the unknown presence, not human, not a ghost that seems to be stalking the family: Andrei and his mother, his little sister (who believes she can do magic) and their baby brother? Andrei's mother has been constantly on the run from the father he's never met, for as long as he can remember: but now the nightmare is closing in, and it's time to turn and face the monster. Whatever that may cost. "A horror story which succeeds in making the fantastic nastily plausible and tactile . . This is a genuinely spooky story where skilful writing conjures spectres out of shadows and rags, and really worries at the edge of the normal." Books for Keeps Winner of the Children of the Night award.