US PUBLICATION OF KNIGHTLEY & SON: K-9 TODAY

KNIGHTLEY & SON: K-9 by Rohan Gavin, the much anticipated sequel to KNIGHTLEY & SON, is out today in the US from Bloomsbury.

Darkus Knightley, tweed-wearing, mega-brained, thoroughly logical 13-year-old investigator of the weird, was just getting used to having his dad back in his life. Then Alan Knightley went off-radar, again, leaving Darkus with a traumatised ex-bomb-disposal dog as his only partner in crime-solving. Now things are getting even stranger. Family pets are being savaged by a beast at a top London beauty spot. Policemen have been tracked and attacked by a particularly aggressive canine. And two curiously alert hounds seem to be watching Darkus’s house. No one is using the word werewolf – yet – but as the full moon approaches, it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work out that someone or something sinister is messing with the minds of London’s dog population. A mysterious canine conspiracy is howling for the attention of Knightley & Son…

Published in the UK by Bloomsbury UK in August, K-9 has already been chosen as one of Sunday Express Summer Picks for Older Children 2014. KNIGHTLEY & SON was a Kirkus Best Children's Book of the Year 2014, a Sunday Times Pick of the Week, a Guardian Best Kids’ Book and a Daily Mail Summer Book Choice. The Guardian called it “full of intrigue, suspense and humour ... a modern day classic detective mystery” and the Daily Mail wrote “the tweed-loving Doc is a young Holmes for our times.” KNIGHTLEY & SON was also Shortlisted for the Stockton Children’s Book Awards 2014 and longlisted for Fantastic Book Awards 2014. Knightley & Son is also up for the Bolton Book Prize. Gallimard published KNIGHTLEY & SON in France last year. 

Rohan Gavin is an author and screenwriter, and father. He lives in London and is now writing the third in the series KNIGHTLEY & SON: 3 OF A KIND.

US readers, who gave KNIGHTLEY & SON a warm welcome, have a treat in store with K-9. Look out for Detective Days on the Bloomsbury US Twitter account, 18-20 February, inspired by K-9, where readers will be discussing favourite detectives, mysteries, and authors!

Praise for KNIGHTLEY AND SON: K9

'The perfect case for father-and-son detective team, Knightley & Son' — Sunday Express, Best Children’s Novels Summer 2014

'Young fans of Sherlock Holmes will be happy to see this' — The Bookbag

'A teeth-gnashing thriller... it will have readers howling for a third' – Kirkus

‘A hair-raising adventure… I would highly recommend the trilogy to anyone who loves to get stuck into a great mystery or an action-packed thriller.’ – The Guardian

MONKEY AND ME by David Gilman on the CILIP Carnegie Longlist

David Gilman’s MONKEY AND ME (published by Templar in the UK and Penguin in Australia) has been longlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal, known as the ‘Booker of Children’s Books’, awarded annually to the writer of an outstanding book for children. The shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 17 March 2015, with the winning titles announced at an awards ceremony on 22 June 2015.

Ten-year-old ‘Beanie’ is always getting into scrapes, and his older brother Mark keeps getting a black eye from standing up to belligerent kids who pick on his younger brother. Their dad has given up his job as a truck driver to work as a postman, to be closer to home, and we know that things are not quite right with the family. But there’s a world outside filled with excitement and intrigue as Beanie makes a bid to join his brother’s gang, and they brave the scary deserted house The Black Gate, where some creature is making frightening noises…only to come upon, of all things, a chimpanzee. How exactly he got there is a mystery to be solved as Beanie bonds with the ape he names Malcolm, discovering that he seems to know some basic sign language. Has he escaped from an animal experiment laboratory? Who are the men pursuing him? And can the boys rescue Malcolm from what could be a harsh fate, with the help, perhaps of a deaf girl…

David Gilman is an award winning screenwriter, who has written for long running series like DALZIEL AND PASCOE and A TOUCH OF FROST. He is currently writing the MASTER OF WAR historical adventure series for adults, of which the second book – DEFIANT UNTO DEATH – is out on Thursday from Head of Zeus.

For more information on the Carnegie Longlist, click here.

Praise for MONKEY AND ME

‘I haven't read anything like this book before... I liked this sad, humorous, emotional book and I rate it 9¾ out of 10.’ – Child book reviewer, Children’s Books site, The Guardian

‘We desperately need writing of this quality for this younger age group... Some very serious, thought-provoking issues are tackled with a very skilful, light and humorous touch making this is a book to appeal to many different audiences and be read on many different levels.’ –Schoolzone

‘MONKEY AND ME is a fantastic read that will have both boys and girls totally engrossed.’ –Booksforkeeps

Visit David’s website

Follow David on Twitter