Raven's Gate

by Anthony Horowitz Narrated by Simon Prebble

Overview

As punishment for a crime he didn't really commit, Matt was given a choice: go to jail or go live with an old woman named Mrs. Deverill in a remote town called Lesser Malling. He should have chosen jail. A strange and sinister plan is coming together made in Lesser Malling, with Matt at the center of it all. People who try to help him disappear . . . or die. It all ties to an evil place named Raven's Gate—a place whose destiny is horrifyingly intertwined with Matt's own.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Horowitz (the Alex Rider series) unveils a thoroughly creepy new tale with this first entry in the Gatekeepers series. The novel opens as 14-year-old Matt Freeman reluctantly helps an older friend break into a warehouse. A frequent truant (he has lived with his aunt since his parents were killed in a car accident), Matt's problems grow exponentially worse when he finds himself charged as an accessory to assault after his friend stabs a security guard during the failed burglary. Matt is offered a chance to participate in the LEAF Program (Liberty and Education Achieved Through Fostering), which sends troubled youths to rural settings where "there are fewer temptations." In the custody of severe, stern Mrs. Deverill, Matt must clean the pigsty among other chores. But his tasks pale compared to the gathering threat in the village of Lesser Malling. Though he tries to escape, Matt finds his attempts thwarted by unseen forces, and he soon realizes that his presence in Lesser Malling is no accident. Among Mrs. Deverill's belongings he makes a chilling discovery: "The photograph was black-and-white, taken with a telephoto lens.... With a sense of horror and sickness, he realized he was looking at a picture of himself. This was his parents' funeral. Six years ago." Sinister magic melds with modern technology, and Matt's few allies are killed off one by one. Horowitz's talent for building suspense is as strong as ever, and this unnatural tale, which descends into ancient evils, should attract a strong following. Ages 12-up. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-At the outset of this first book in Anthony Horowitz's latest series (Scholastic, 2005), 14-year-old Matt is arrested at the scene of an electronics warehouse break-in. Soon, he's remanded to the home of a crone in a country village. She's ornery, but the village is out and out creepy: he can't find a road that goes anywhere but in a circle and it seems everyone to whom he turns for help winds up dead. Horowitz's Alex Rider books presented the boy against the system of national espionage. Matt's situation is even worse-his opponents are witches. Simon Prebble's pacing as Matt struggles from quicksand, is chased by dinosaurs through the Natural History Museum, and finds himself about to be sacrificed by the coven in a secluded wood remains agonizingly steady, wringing every drop of horror from the author's carefully drawn plot in this fantasy set in modern times.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

This first in a projected series by the author of the Alex Rider books has it all-mystery, suspense, conspiracies, occult elements and science gone amuck-and instead of becoming a novelistic mish-mash, it all works. Rejected by his only living relative, betrayed to the police by a supposed friend, Matt Freeman chooses to serve a probationary sentence on an English farm near York rather than in a juvenile detention center. Shortly after he arrives at Hive Hill-the farm owned by his sinister guardian-a thoroughly terrified Matt discovers that he can't escape either the farm or the mysterious destiny facing him. In this page-turner, Horowitz constantly jacks up the tension, ricocheting from catastrophe to disaster and violently killing off any adults who try to help Matt. Many of the 20 chapters end in cliffhangers, while the spectacular climax and surprising conclusion provide both a satisfying ending and a good set-up for the next in the series. Go. Visit. Have an exhilarating read. (Fiction. 10-14)$100,000 ad/promo budget

Product Details

BN ID:	2940170701322
Publisher:	Recorded Books, LLC
Publication date:	03/11/2008
Series:	Gatekeepers Series , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Age Range:	8 - 11 Years

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