Welcome to The Last Chance Hotel

The Last Chance Hotel won the 2016 Times Children's Fiction Competition. It was published in 2018, has been a Waterstone's Book of the Month, and (so far) as been published in 15 countries worldwide including Germany, France, The Netherlands, Russia, Poland and South Korea.

You can read reviews here, but here's all you need to know about the book!

Welcome to The Last Chance Hotel

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.

Seth faces having to work out who really committed the impossible murder if he is to escape a life in jail, wrongfully accused of poisoning a man who was only kind to him.

But Seth’s problems don’t end there. When he learns that the eccentric guests are all sorcerers, he suspects magic was at the bottom of the crime.

If he is to unravel what is really going on, unmask who really is the murderer and prove how the crime was committed, first Seth needs to learn all about magic and discovers that magic is not only very, very rare, but is difficult and dangerous to do. How do you become a sorcerer? And what are the lengths some people will go to in order to become magical? Would someone even commit murder?

As the story twists and turns, Seth's journey takes him to the dark heart of the magical world.

Awards and prizes

I've been thrilled that other people have enjoyed 'The Last Chance Hotel' so much, that it's been longlisted - or even shortlisted - for a book award, including:

  • Winner of The Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Competition 2016.
  • Winner! 2019 Ealing Junior Book Award
  • Nominated for the 2019 Carnegie Medal
  • Shortlisted for the 2019 CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children
  • Shortlisted for the 2019 Oxfordshire Book Award Best Junior Novel
  • Shortlisted for the Warwickshire 2019 Junior Book Award
  • Longlisted for the Specsavers National Book Awards 2018

So here's where you can order your copy:




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