Showing results by publisher "Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd" in Mystery & Suspense

London, 1876. Hetty Feather is just a tiny baby when her mother leaves her at the Foundling Hospital. The Hospital cares for abandoned children - but Hetty must live with a foster family until she is big enough to go to school. Life in the countryside is hard but she has 'brothers' Jem and Gideon to play with, and together they sneak off to visit the travelling circus. Hetty is mesmerised by the show, especially Madame Adeline and her performing horses.

Cole is the odd one out at school: the other kids have the latest gadgets and trainers, while his family struggles to make ends meet, until the day one of his paintings is talent-spotted and sells for thousands of pounds at a posh London gallery. Being famous is FANTASTIC, but Cole has a guilty secret which, if exposed, will bring everything crashing down around him.

Melody Bird has discovered an old, abandoned building on the edge of town.... It's a dark, creepy place, but she can't resist its pull. When she goes to explore, she finds a boy hiding out there. Hal tells Melody that he is a spy-in-training, using the house as a base for his undercover surveillance of a nearby suspected criminal. He's very secretive about the details, but Melody trusts him and starts bringing him blankets and sneaking him food.

Todd and Laurie's dad is either on top of the world, taking them on fun adventures or down in the depths and sleeping all the time. In the middle of the night, he bundles them into the car and drives them to the Paradise Hotel. He paints a picture of a luxurious mansion surrounded by acres of land - a fairground, a swanky swimming pool, a grand ballroom, firework displays. The reality is a rundown dump - and the disappointment means Dad takes to his bed.

When the kittens overhear their enemies, the rats, whispering about a treasure map hidden in the museum, Boris is especially excited. Could the map belong to the legendary pirate queen Diamond Nell, whose ship - The Silver Lion - is on display in the museum? And can they stop the rats from getting their claws on the pirate’s gold first? 

Mabel lives with her parents in The Mermaid Hotel, by the sea. Mabel likes to keep an eye on the comings and goings of all the guests. Then one day a particularly in-ter-est-ing old lady comes to stay. There is something very suspicious about her, with her growly voice and her heavy trunks and her beady-eyed tortoise. And why does no one know her real name? There can be only one answer, Mabel decides...this guest is a supervillain.

Determined to be the world’s greatest detective, Zaiba is always on the lookout for a crime to solve. At her cousin’s Mehndi party, Zaiba gets her first challenge: to discover the identity of the VIP staying at the same hotel. With the help of her best friend, Poppy, and brother Ali, Zaiba puts her sleuthing skills to the test. And when the celebrity’s precious dog disappears, along with its priceless diamond collar, it’s up to the trio to save the day! 

When Melvin moves from the city to Donut (a perfectly round island with a hole in the middle), he thinks it's the most rubbish place ever. Then he meets Rhubarb. Rhubarb is obsessed with mysteries and has her own school newspaper to investigate the strange goings on in Donut. (Unfortunately nothing ever happens in Donut so she's never had anything to write about.) But then Melvin notices that the kids at school are acting very strangely. Could it be something to do with the Donut Hole Monsters that everyone is collecting? Also includes Attack of the Haunted Lunchbox.

Determined to be the world’s greatest detective, Zaiba is always on the lookout for a crime to solve. She knows everything there is to know about running an investigation - in theory. Zaiba can’t wait for the school summer fair where she’s going to run a detective trail to help train other potential agents! But when the head teacher is poisoned during the highly competitive cake competition, Zaiba’s own skills are put to the test. With a whole host of suspects and a busy crime scene, Zaiba needs to stay focused if she’s going to get to the bottom of the cake catastrophe. 

When a new family moves to the village, Zaiba is intrigued to hear about the strange happenings in their home. Things go missing, objects are smashed and unfriendly messages are painted on the walls. There have always been rumours that the house is haunted, but is a ghost really causing all this trouble? Zaiba and her team are convinced that the culprit is very much alive – and won’t stop until they get what they want.

A year after the death of her older brother, Prue Haywood's family is still shattered by grief. But everything changes when a stranger arrives at the farm. A new, incredible technology has been discovered in the city of Medlock, where a secretive guild of inventors have developed a way to capture spirits of the dead in animal-like machines, bringing them back to life. Prue knows that the 'Ghost Guild' might hold the key to bringing her brother back, so she seizes the stranger's offer to join as an apprentice.

Penelope Magnificent's life doesn't live up to her name. Her dad thinks only about making money and her mum loves her handbag more than her daughter. But she gets through the hard times remembering the lovely French woman Perrine who looked after her when she was little. Even after Pear was sent away, she wrote to Nell every week, telling her about her new life. But then the letters stopped. So when Nell gets the chance to go to Paris with her parents, she is determined to track down Pear. But the mystery gets deeper when Pear isn't where she told Nell she'd be – and never had been!

Poppy Pym has grown up in the circus, taming lions before lunch and learning acrobatics in the afternoon. But when she turns eleven, her circus family decides she needs a more traditional education, and she is sent to boarding school. At first Poppy doesn't fit in at St Smithen's, a school that is very different from the circus. Then an ancient Egyptian ruby arrives at school, and dangerous accidents start occurring. Suddenly it's up to Poppy to save her new school and solve the mystery of the pharaoh's curse!

Liverpool, 1940: 13 year old Joan's home is under threat from the Nazi's terrifying nightly air-raids. It is not an easy time to be a teenager, especially with the sweet rationing, strict curfews and blackouts. Joan and best friend Doreen love going to the cinema until the bombings intensify and then even that becomes too dangerous, especially when an army deserter is found lurking near their home. Who is he and why does he think Joan can help him?

Polly and Rex are delighted when the old toy dog stirs on the nursery shelf. But Skip wants to be left alone! Then Polly shows a new classmate around Penhallow, and she seems strangely drawn to the little dog, too. Could she be the friend Skip needs? 

Determined to be the world’s greatest detective, Zaiba is always on the lookout for a crime to solve. Zaiba is excited to visit an historical shipwreck and attend the reveal of its mystery cargo! But the big event is ruined when the priceless artefact goes missing. With stories of smuggling rooted in the seaside town’s past, Zaiba’s investigative instincts are buzzing. Will she and her team be able to uncover the coast’s secrets and find the treasure before it’s lost again forever?

Agatha Christie meets St Trinian's in this delightful new middle grade mystery series! Daphne is off to St Rita's, an exclusive girls' boarding school. It sounds awfully respectable, and Daphne herself is awfully respectable, too. She loves to read and is delighted to be offered the chance to interview for librarian's assistant's assistant immediately upon arrival. But it turns out nothing is quite what you'd expect at St Rita's....

Kate Rickman seems just like any other 19-year-old girl. She goes to university, she dates nice, normal boys, and she works in her local tourist office at the weekend. But Kate's not really normal at all. "Kate" is in fact a carefully constructed facade for a girl called Jennifer Jones...and it's a facade that's crumbling fast. Jennifer has spent the last nine years frantically trying to escape from her horrifying past. Increasingly desperate, Jennifer decides to do something drastic. She contacts the only other girl who might understand what she's dealing with, breaking every rule of her parole along the way.

A family-run haunted hotel’s livelihood is threatened when a bigger haunted hotel opens nearby in this hilarious, spooky story. Twelve-year-old Willow Ivan’s family has run the Hotel Ivan for 400 years. Through thick and thin, they’ve held on tight to their title as the Best Haunted Hotel on Mercer Street. That is, until the Hauntery – a corporate chain of haunted hotels – moves in down the street. As the Ivan’s business fades, so do their ghostly staff. And Willow begins to worry that the Ivan’s days are numbered. 

Nothing ever happens in World's End Close. So when Stevie discovers a runaway girl in her coal shed, the first thing she does is fetch her best friend, Ray. Both are dying for a bit of adventure, and when the girl begs for help, they readily agree. Yet they soon realise they've taken on more than they bargained for. The girl, Anna, reveals she's on the run from people who are trying to poison her. Meanwhile, on the news, the Americans and Russians are arguing over missiles in Cuba. As the threat of war grows, Anna's behaviour becomes more mysterious.