Book Two in the After School Detective Club series.
Joe can't believe his luck when his dad rents a castle for their Easter holidays - but is devastated when his mum receives a better invitation and the trip is cancelled. Determined to have his holiday, Joe develops an elaborate plan to go with his friends instead.
The castle is everything the friends had hoped for: a partially restored ruin with a moat, a Saxon chapel, spiral staircases and an ancient burial mound that gives it an air of mystery. But it's not long before they hear strange noises underground and notice yellow eyes lurking in the forest. And when Sherlock falls through some rotten boards and into an old well, they discover an ancient box, containing a 200-year-old notebook and an incomplete treasure map.
The race is on. The After School Detective Club is on the trail of Ragnar's gold - a hoard of treasure said to have been buried by a Viking warrior and guarded by his demon hound . . . that is, unless someone else gets there first.
The Case of the Smuggler's Curse is the first in a brand-new series of adventure stories for kids that brings together the best traditions of Enid Blyton, Jacqueline Wilson and David Walliams. Lucy, Max, Charlie and Joe aren't looking for new friends - they have too many of their own problems to worry about. But when the four of them, and Charlie's faithful dog, Sherlock, spot a phantom figure on Southwold beach one winter's night, they are thrown together to unravel a mystery that none of them expected. Just who is the ghostly spectre that walks the sands of Southwold with a lantern in his hand? What is the connection to the ancient curse that hangs over the town? And is the respectable Quentin De Havilland everything he pretends to be? If the five friends can learn to work together, they might just solve the mystery - if only they can stop arguing with each other first.
