…Almost, because now I need to say

HELLO TO ANY DUTCH AND GERMAN  READERS

who have popped into the site for a spot of confusion. Yes, your cunning publishers decided not to call me Daniel Finn but … Will Gatti! What larks, eh! (Old fashioned English for ‘fun’, in case you were wondering.)

Never mind. I promise (and yes, I always break my promises) I won’t leave it for so long before adding a bit more chat.

I got back from a wonderful holiday where I spent a great deal of time padding up and down a beach called Turtle Beach looking for turtles but the turtles were obviously on holiday. They were probably sitting at my desk writing my new book. I am not complaining. I expect turtles are really good at writing my stories…

I didn’t mean to mention turtles. What I meant to say was that the news I got when I came home was that ‘Two Good Thieves’ is on the long list for the Carnegie Award. I think that is pretty cheerful making but I do wonder if the long list is as long as Turtle Beach, because that is a very long beach.

Note to me: Find picture of beach. It looks a lot better than the photograph below.

So that’s what Daniel is up to. The other one, Will, he’s pitching up to a festival in Hackney. It’s called the Starlit festival. Maybe he’ll see you there. I’m not sure if you’ll recognise him though because he says, he’ll be the one in disguise. It’s that Pimpernel thing again, isn’t it; everyone pretending to be someone else. It’s so confusing!

My new book Two Good Thieves has just been published. It always seems like an age between the time I have finished writing a story and when it finally emerges clad in its crisp, shiny jacket. My first signing session for the book was in Harrods which was good fun, especially since I was only about twenty paces from the pet department where I saw a puppy called a ‘cairnoodle’. What a name…

I am now in the west of Ireland writing a prequel to Two Good Thieves. In fact I am not sure that strictly speaking it is a prequel – more like a first cousin, but there you are, I am not so good at the technical terms. Anyway, thank God for the summer holidays – even if it is lashing with rain right now …

• You need to be faster than light.
• You need to be invisible.
• And, most of all, you need to be lucky.

In a city of thieves, you need to be the best to get ahead.

Demi and Baz are the best. Demi has the gift of speed- he can pick a pocket and be gone before his victim has even noticed he was there. Baz is his lookout- no one sees her unless she wants them to.

But one day, almost by accident, they steal a dazzling, priceless jewel – and make a very dangerous enemy.

In a city of thieves, some things are worth more than life itself. With the Shady Man on their tail and the police after their blood, Baz and Demi need all the luck they can get.

Some stories come together in strange and haphazard ways: a picture in a magazine, something someone says, a report in a newspaper, even stories you read as a child; and they get tucked away somewhere in the ramshackle attic at the back of your mind. But you never quite forget them and gradually they nudge towards each other until they become pieces that look like they might belong to the same puzzle.

That’s what happened here. I didn’t know where the city was, but I could see the dried up river, the steaming barrio with its twisting alleys, and then I heard Baz and she started to tell me the story.

Buy it from Amazon

Read an extract

Reviews

“You can smell this book, and taste it, and feel it, and your heart beats fast, fast, when its characters are running for their lives . . . A book so emotionally engaging that’s such a page-turner is rare indeed . . . for readers of any age.” Erica Wagner, Literary Editor, The Times

‘Two Good Thieves leaves you dry-mouthed, it’s extremely sharply written, and it’s a keeper.’ Kevin Crossley-Holland, prize-winning author of the Arthur Trilogy

“Intense, powerful and moving, Two Good Thieves is both an indictment of a world corroded by corruption and poverty, and a touching story of the endurance of friendship.” Anthony McGowan, prize-winning author of The Knife That Killed Me

“The heat and humidity of its exotic South American setting adds palpable tension to a fast-paced thriller . . . Breathless and exciting, this makes for perfect summer reading” The Bookseller

“A terrific new talent . . . Dramatic, fast-paced and full of the kind of passionate compassion that never intrudes, Two Good Thieves is a treat.” Amanda Craig, The Times (read the full review)

“The characters are fantastic. I wanted to feel sorry for Demi and Baz and their situation, but they’re so resilient and ingenious that it makes this almost impossible . . . This book was over before I knew it; I was totally hooked into this unbelievably believable world.” Jason Mark Curley, The Bookbag (read the full five-star review)

“A terrific, nail-biting thriller, Two Good Thieves captures the harsh world of a gang of child pickpockets surviving on the streets of a South American city . . . As the tension mounts the delicate balance of relationships between the children and their need for each other for survival is poignantly told.” Julia Eccleshare, LoveReading4Kids (read the full review)

“A book that I would never normally read . . . was Two Good Thieves by Daniel Finn, and how grateful I am that I did. It’s gritty social realism . . . where everyone speaks a kind of patois but it shows how children can manifest, in a hellish world, heroic loyalty and courage.” Melanie McDonagh, Evening Standard (read the full review)

“Finn expertly builds up a picture  . . . of the searing heat and squalor . . . Baz has a core morality to her but Finn does not impede the white-knuckle ride of this thriller with unrealistic sentimentality.” Dinah Hall, The Sunday Telegraph (read the full summer books round-up)

“A very gritty, fast-paced adventure, rich in atmosphere and drama that will appeal to any age that appreciates an edge-of-your-seat thriller.” Sally Morris, Daily Mail

“[An] exciting, involving story . . . Finn writes curt sentences, perfectly suited to action sequences, and the book really comes alive in its fights and chases, following its characters through the backstreets of the slums.” Josh Lacy, The Guardian (read the full review)

For a different type of tension, Daniel Finn’s The Good Thieves (Macmillan, £9.99) is a superb story set in a South American favela where stealing is a way of life. Baz and Demi, the junior thieves, are expert pick-pockets. But when they take on their superiors in crime, things get very rough indeed. Impossible to put down, this is an excellent novel. Nicholas Tucker, The Independent

Sir Pent is back, and is more powerful and dangerous than ever before. He has become a minister in the government and has weaseled his way into the world of sport. He is determined that his own private team of athletes win the Junior Olympics, and he’ll stop at nothing, not even kidnap, to get his runner up on the podium.

And who is there to stop him?

Step forward the master of trickery, disguise and ingenious invention: the Pimpernel. And his unlikely helpers: the Geek and the Greek.

Let it RIP!

Buy it from Amazon

What do I think of exams?

Everyone with their heads down and scribbling. The air thick with
anxiety . . .

SATS! RATS! BATS!

No, I don’t like exams at all. And while I think about it I don’t much like bullies or stupid rules, or boring lessons – and if you put all three together you get my nightmare school.It’s called Staleways and it’s in a place called Peasely. The school’s a dark and gloomy building with huge black gates, so wherever you are in the town you can always see it. That’s not the worst thing about it though; the creepy, villainous headmaster, Sir Pent, uses all the bullies and thugs to run the place, and what’s more, Sir Pent loves to send all the good, clever pupils to the swotshop, where they take test, after test, after test . . . and nobody is sure why. It just seems to be the way it is.

What’s needed is a hero. A mysterious hero. A hero who doesn’t look a like a hero. But a hero who just knows exactly how to make Sir Pent and his bullies look totally stupid.

What’s needed is The Pimpernel.

And the Pimpernel needs a gang. One of them is Trokka, the Greek, and the other is Minou, the Geek.

What we don’t know is: who on earth is the Pimpernel?

Buy it from Amazon

This is the sequel to Abe’s Team. On their return from Egypt, Abe and Alicia have to search out their anarchic team of ancient footballing chums. But in the time that they have been away, Britain has completely changed and is now ruled by a dark sisterhood of witches. Time seems to have gone backwards, cities have crumbled, motorways have become cracked with weeds. And Alicia and Abe realise – or at least Alicia realises – that the only way you can fight magic is with magic. The trouble is, magic corrupts. Alicia discovers she has the power, but this power begins to change
her . . .Buy it from Amazon marketplace