Something Wickedly Weird: The Smugglers' Mine

Chris Mould is an illustrator turned writer, ‘writing the kind of books [he] would have liked as a boy’. The result is a series of adventures of a mild nature, set on an island, complete with map and cast of unlikely characters.

In this one, Stanley, heir to Candlestick Hall, meets up with the beguiling and mysterious MacDowell. Together they find secret tunnels and a hoard of long-forgotten gold; breaking Stanley’s trust, MacDowell betrays him.

Stanley and his friends are attractive and appealing characters with a great sense of the honour of their families and the integrity of their island. Unfortunately the story, which includes werewolves as well as untrustworthy old pirates, seems contrived and curiously uneventful and not really worthy of the characters. However, I think this series might find an audience among new young readers of seven or eight – it is easy enough to read, undemanding and quite fun. The illustrations, varying between pencil sketches, ink drawings and silhouettes, are inconsistent in style, and to my mind unattractive, often even ugly, and perhaps a little sophisticated for the age group.