The hardback cover is striking and
attractive – a blue, black, and amber rendition of the night sky, the suburban
streets, silhouettes of figures (human and otherwise) and, in front of an
indeterminate redness, a set of black wrought iron gates dangerously ajar.
For these are the gates of Hell and unseemly
things are on the way out, summoned by a combination of Mrs Abernathy’s séance
in the basement of 666 Crawley Avenue and an unexpected event at the Large
Hadron Collider in Switzerland.
A small boy and his dog witness the former
and soon become the main obstacles to the achievement of Hell on Earth. Using courage, ingenuity, school friends with
useful skills (cricket and a knowledge of black hole physics) and a helpful
demon with a grudge, the battle is waged.
The premise and prose style indicate a
target readership of young adult, but what age?
The hero is about eleven but the humour is dark and the footnotes
introduce serious science.
The perils of choosing a book by the cover
became evident - loved its artwork but felt a few decades old for the text.
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