Tales of Darkisle: Conn of the Dead

About this book

How do you kill a zombie? 11-year-old Conn O’Cathain knows. 

He’s obsessed with the ancient Irish legend of the Abhartach – a heaving mass of body parts who can scream through a thousand mouths and wants to take over your body, too. 

But strangely, his teachers don‘t want him to repeatedly retell this story in lessons. He’s never sat still in his life. He’s always in trouble. 

When Conn finds a skull at his aunt’s workplace, he can’t help opening the box it's in. And – oops – the evil Ahartach is set free again. 

Suddenly, Conn and Inez, whom he’s only just met, must outmanoeuvre the mind-controlling monster who’s taken over the adults’ bodies before it regains full power. Can this ‘troublemaker’ really save the world? 

Full of laughs and scares, this is a delight to read. It’s short, pacy, and includes a heartfelt perspective on having a lot of thoughts at once, and too much energy with nowhere for it to go. (Which it turns out, might be the key to defeating ancient zombies!) 

A satisfying story for readers with short attention spans.