About
Death or Ice Cream? Synopsis
Larkin Mills: The Birthplace of Death! Larkin Mills is no ordinary town. It's a place of contradictions and enigma, of secrets and mysteries. A place with an exquisite ice cream parlour, and an awful lot of death. An extraordinary mystery in Larkin Mills is beginning to take shape.
First we meet the apparently healthy Albert Dance, although he's always been called a sickly child, and he's been booked into Larkin Mills' Hospital for Specially Ill Children.
Then there's his neighbour Ivor, who observes strange goings-on, and begins his own investigations into why his uncle disappeared all those years ago.
Next we meet Young Olive, who is given a battered accordion by her father, and unwittingly strikes a dreadful deal with an instrument repair man.
Make sure you keep an eye on Mr Morricone, the town ice-cream seller, who has queues snaking around the block for his legendary ice cream flavours Summer Fruits Suicide and The Christmas Massacre.
And Mr Milkwell, the undertaker, who has some very dodgy secrets locked up in his hearse. Because if you can piece together what all these strange folks have to do with one another . . . well, you'll have begun to unlock the dark secrets that keep the little world of Larkin Mills spinning . . .
About This Edition
| ISBN: |
9781471404283 |
| Publication date: |
7th January 2016 |
| Author: |
Gareth P. Jones |
| Publisher: |
Hot Key Books |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| Pagination: |
256 pages |
| Suitable For: |
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Press Reviews
Gareth P. Jones Press Reviews
This book is written as a series of individual yet inter-connected which culminate in a thought-provoking finale -- Nicola Lee - The Guardian
The stories are funny and well written, you actually believe in the rather strange characters that populate the pages. You begin to see how the mundane could be hiding a wholly different world underneath. As the tales unfold you begin to realise that what drives the narrative is the age old struggle of good over evil, death or ice cream - Books For Keeps
A darky, funny and brilliantly strange novel (...) Gareth P. Jones is a master of the macabre and the absurd, and he expertly blends those two elements together here, weaving a surreal web of histories and fables that's complex and complete, with the eternal tug-of-war between darkness and light at the heart of it. Readers who are looking for a break from dystopian series will find this a stylish and compelling alternative; a standalone story that's as thought-provoking as it is chillingly entertaining - Teach Secondary
Death or Ice Cream? Will tickle the tastebuds of any lover of the dark and the macabre (...) a clever and fun book. Piecing the stories together is an added pleasure for the reader (...) A thought-provoking, shiver-inducing... lark! - Inis Reading Guide
Author
About Gareth P. Jones
Gareth first started writing when he was very young but it wasn’t until he was in his early twenties that he completed his first novel. Having had it universally rejected, he wrote a novel for children called Who Killed Charlie Twig, which received an equally unimpressed reception and remains rightly unpublished to this day. Some years passed during which Gareth met his future wife, Lisa and began a career in TV. Working on shows such as 'The Big Breakfast' and 'Richard & Judy', he became side-tracked from his book writing ambitions until one day he found himself having lunch at the offices of Bloomsbury. He mentioned the unpublished book to a nice lady called Sarah, who politely suggested that he should send in the first three chapters for her to look at. Gareth returned home and excitedly told his wife this news, who gently explained that the book he had written actually wasn’t very good, but reminded him that he had recently begun work on a much better idea. This turned out to be good advice.
In 2007 Bloomsbury published the first of four books in the series The Dragon Detective Agency and have since published The Thornthwaite Inheritance, Space Crime Conspiracy and The Considine Curse, for which he won the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2012. Gareth has also written a shorter story, Perry’s 5, published by Barrington Stoke and a series of books called Ninja Meerkats, published by Stripes.
The Case of the Missing Cats was nominated for the Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. The Thornthwaite Inheritance has won the Hounslow Junior Book Award, the Calderdale Book Award, Leicester Children’s Book Award, Sefton Super Reads, Doncaster Book Award, Rotherham Children’s Book Award and Fantastic Book Award, Lancaster.
Gareth now divides his time between writing books, producing TV programmes, spending time with his wife and children, and playing the slightly ludicrous number of stringed instruments in his front room. He lives in Forest Hill, south east London.
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