YOU CAN'T get any colder than stone cold. It is stone cold sleeping through a winter night in the doorway of a shop in a dark street in London. But teenager Link is homeless and he has no choice. During the day he is one of the invisible people that others like to ignore. People do not want to think that he exists because he makes them feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. Link is proof that the world is a lonely and painful place. And no one wants to be reminded about that, do they? There is nothing so unusual about the way Link ended up sleeping in a stone-cold doorway in London. He isn't the only one to have travelled this tragic road. He was born into an average family in a small town in the north of England and everything was going well in his young life until his father met another woman and deserted his wife and children. Link was 14 and his life suddenly began to fall apart. His schoolwork went from bad to worse, but his mother was too concerned with pleasing her new boyfriend. Carole, Link's elder sister, left home when the man moved in. Link was left alone to face a strange new life that he didn't understand. Vince, mum's boyfriend, was a violent drunk. He resented having to provide food and a home for Link and did everything he could to make life difficult for the boy. Link knew that he had to run away and find a new life for himself. Life with mum and Vince was a hell that no teenager could have endured. All homeless teenagers in Britain drift towards London. The capital city is a magnet that attracts runaways seeking a brighter future. But the unfriendly streets of London are not much better. It is a freezing cold night and Link is crouching in a doorway that is now his bedroom. Perhaps some passerby will give him some money so that he can go and eat. He holds out his hand and mumbles a few words, but no one responds to his desperation. He is invisible. But there is someone who knows where Link is. The man calls himself Shelter and he has a mission. He used to be in the British Army, but after 29 years' service, some official sitting behind a desk decided that he was of no further use. So Shelter was discharged from the army on medical grounds. And when Shelter looked around him, he did not like what he saw. The streets of London were clogged up with tramps, junkies and drunks. Shelter made up his mind to do his bit and clean up the human rubbish from the doorways. It was easy. He offered them shelter for the night, they came with him and he killed them. One more piece of human rubbish removed from the gutter. One down and many more to go. It was as easy as taking a lamb to the slaughter. No one missed the hunter's victims. No one cared when they vanished. Shelter was doing them a favour. Robert Swindell's Stone Cold is a chilling novel and young adult readers will discover that the author pulls no punches. It is a suspenseful cat-and-mouse thriller that tells the story of a hunter and his prey. Link is homeless, frightened and alone. Shelter is a madman intent on a deadly mission. He stalks his victims with cold-blooded determination. It can only be a matter of time before Link becomes the hunter's next prey. Read it and shiver. Stone Cold By Robert Swindells Published by Puffin ISBN 0 14 036251 7 John Millen can be contacted on MillenBookshelf@aol.com
