Children’s Books - Nicki Thornton

Hard-working Seth is the kitchen boy in the remote Last Chance Hotel, owned by the nasty Bunn family and their toxic daughter, Tiffany, his only friend is Nightshade, the kitchen cat.

He dreams of leaving, and of a future beyond the Last Hope Forest, away from Tiffany’s schemes to torment him and wonders if his chance for change might finally have arrived when a bunch of strange characters come to stay.

But things go terribly wrong when the dessert Seth carefully made to impress kindly Dr Thallomius, instead poisons him.

Seth finds himself at the heart of a murder investigation with a lot more than Tiffany to worry about as he is the main suspect and accused of the crime. But Seth’s problems don’t end there. The eccentric guests are all sorcerers and Seth suspects magic was at the bottom of the crime.

How can he possibly find the real culprit and clear his name when he doesn’t have the first clue about magic, or why someone might have wanted to kill the most important sorcerer in the land.

Nicki Thornton’s debut won the Ealing Junior Book Award, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and the Prix Elbakin.Net for fantasy writing in France. She was shortlisted for the CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children, the Oxfordshire Book Award Best Junior Novel, the Warwickshire Junior Book Award and the Specsavers National Book Awards.

The Bad Luck Lighthouse

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Everyone is blaming a series of mysterious accidents on rumours that the Snakesmouth Lighthouse is haunted. But since discovering how damaging magic can be in the wrong hands, Seth Seppi sets out to prove someone among the lighthouse party must secretly be practising magic. Swept up in the new MagiCon case, Seth is determined to prove himself, both as a potential sorcerer, but also as a detective. But this is a darker and more dangerous magic than he has come across before.

“This fantastical story has rich, descriptive text, an interesting cast of magical and non-magical characters and so many plot twists … one of the best books I have read this year”
BOOKS FOR TOPICS

The follow-up to the bestselling The Last Chance Hotel!

“With The Last Chance Hotel, Nicki Thornton fused magical fantasy with classic crime; its follow up pushes the envelope even further, with sinister conspiracies and ruthless organisations abounding around a curious lighthouse. Playful yet genuinely creepy, the Seth Seppi Mysteries are fast becoming must haves for any child’s library.”
Waterstones

The Cut Throat Cafe

Seth and his cat Nightshade arrive in a magical town to finally gain a sought-after magical apprenticeship: Seth is finally read to qualify as a sorcerer, but as usual, the magical world is a complex and shadowy place. Seth is excited to quickly make new friends among the other young people learning magic, but discovers the apprentices are under attack. Seth is determined to prove himself as both a sorcerer and a detective and needs to discover who’s murdering the apprentices and stop them before they strike again. Especially before one of his new-found friends becomes the next victim …

“I think that this is my favourite book that Nicki has written so far. It is a truly wonderful story with so many unexpected twists and turns. This book is even more misleading than the ones before it but my favourite thing about it are the names, how DOES Nicki think them up (I love the name Tendril Vetch!)
It has so many relatable characters and many more mind-boggling mysteries to solve. Nicki instantly weaves another amazing bookworld filled with atmosphere, adventure and excitement, and a fair amount of soul-searching from Seth as he sometimes looks for easy (and sometimes quite dark) solutions to his problems, steered back on the moral path by his trusty best buddy Nightshade.”
Read It Daddy

The Nightshade Mysteries

The Howling Hag Mystery

“Blending magical adventure with Golden Age crime mystery, this delightfully atmospheric spin-off from the author of The Last Chance Hotel confirms Thornton’s place as one of the most original children’s writers around.”
Waterstones

A school plagued by curses. A witch who cannot do magic.

And one cat who believes she is the world’s best magical detective.

When bad things start to happen in Raven Charming’s school, rumours build that it must be the local witch.

But Raven has a secret. She knows exactly who the local with is – it’s her sister, Rookery, because the Charmings are a family of witches. But can it really be her sister who is to blame for all the unpleasant things that are happening? Or is there another witch in town?

Raven must find out before her sister’s secret is exposed, even though Raven has another shameful secret of her own to keep – she’s the only witch in her family who cannot do magic.

The Poisoned Pie Mystery

What happens when the unluckiest boy in the world meets the greatest magical detective (who might also be a cat)?

Oakmoss Hornbeam knows he is very clumsy. In fact he’s just escaped certain death (lucky), although that did make him miss the school bus (unlucky), but also meant he made a new friend, a cat who knows a lot about magic.

Is Oakmoss simply very accident-prone, or is it possible someone has put him under a powerful ill-wishing spell? Because who on earth would want to harm a slightly undersized schoolboy?

Together with his new friend, Nightshade the cat, Oakmoss must delve into the darker side of magic and his own powerful, magical family as they attempt to discover if someone is really out to harm Oakmoss with magic. Who might want to? And why?

The Floating Witch Mystery