Balloon House

by Brian Keaney

She unlocked the door and pulled it towards her. In a fraction of a second Neve saw two men. They were wearing balaclavas over their faces. The next instant she was flying back into the hall as one of the men pushed the door hard with his shoulder.

When Neve was a child, her father used to make up stories about a magical Balloon House that could fly anywhere its owner wanted it to. But it’s hard to recapture this intimacy now that he’s moved away and remarried.

She is determined not to like her father’s new wife, Yvonne, and her weird son, Zed. What’s more she’s not prepared to forgive her dad for failing to be there for her so many times in the past.

But everything changes when masked men burst into the house carrying guns. They’re looking for her father and they’re prepared to hold Neve hostage until he returns. Now the one thing she dreads is hearing the sound of his key in the lock.

176 pages, Paperback

First published July 27, 2000

About the author

Brian writes novels for adults, young adults and children. HIs latest novel for adults is The Alphabet of Heart's Desire (Holland House Books), based on an incident in the life of the nineteenth century writer and opium addict, Thomas De Quincey