For children: A stolen antique, a wrongly accused boy, and a haunted bungalow full of secrets

There was something not quite right about the place.

Only a moment’s strangeness, but it thudded through Rishi as soon as he got out of the car, taking him by the scruff of his neck and knocking him off his feet. The phone fell from his hand, and he would have fallen too, flat on his face on the gravel, had he not grabbed the door in time. He peeked at his mother to see whether she had felt it too, but she was on the other side, talking to the driver.

Just as quickly, the feeling passed. Probably dizziness, he thought, taking a cautious step, or leg cramps. He had been hunched up in the car for far too long. All the way from the airport and then up, up, up the twisting mountain roads. Staying in one position for too long, that had to be it. Something to do with blood circulation, he had read in a book. That’s what had brought on the spell of dizziness.

He picked up his phone and pressed the big centre button. The screen blinked back with its usual light, and there were no cracks, so that was good. His legs were behaving themselves now. Just to check,...

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