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Triskellion #1
Triskellion
Rachel and Adam are sent to stay with their grandmother, following their parents' divorce. But the quiet English village is a sinister, unsettling place. Is there a dark heart beating beneath the thatched roofs of Triskellion?
388 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Will Peterson
11 books41 followersWill Peterson is a shared pseudonym of Mark Billingham, award-winning author of the bestselling Tom Thorne crime novels, and Peter Cocks, a popular children’s television writer and performer. Mark Billingham lives in London, and Peter Cocks lives in Kent, England.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 171 reviews
October 11, 2018
This has been sitting in the library waiting for someone to get it out, so with a lack of takers it was me this school holiday. So glad I did too It's one of those gorgeous children's story's that I love - lots of description and observation so it's very visual and inviting. It had an old-worldy feel to it, mostly because of the rural backwater it was set in, and I liked that. Great tale of the old and new worlds colliding, family secrets, village superstitions, and twins who have an ability to mindtalk to each other. Loved it so much I'm going to get the rest of the series! It says that it is for readers 13+ but I think that an advanced reader from 9-12 would love it. Nothing horrible there for them, unless they're scared of the supernatural. Wonderful!
February 24, 2012
This book started off SO awesomely and I must have raced through the first, like, fifty pages in ten minutes! And overall it IS a very fast read, but I felt that somewhere along the way it started to lose a bit of its shine somehow... like things just started getting a bit too odd and unexplained. I'm still not entirely sure what the elders of the town were so freaked out about, and it takes a long time before you really know what Adam and Rachel's mission is. A lot of the time it felt like they were being meddlesome and should have just left well enough alone... there seemed no huge reason WHY the three pieces of the Triskellion suddenly HAD to be put together. But overall I did like this. Maybe I'll read the next book, but I'm not sure... only if it suddenly falls into my lap, I guess.
There's a lot of small-town Britishness here, where outsiders are frowned upon and locked out; a lot of generations-old creepiness and legend swirling around. It has the same sort of feel as books like the Magician's House series, so if you enjoy that sort of thing then I think you'd like this.
Also, holy shit the bees.
There's a lot of small-town Britishness here, where outsiders are frowned upon and locked out; a lot of generations-old creepiness and legend swirling around. It has the same sort of feel as books like the Magician's House series, so if you enjoy that sort of thing then I think you'd like this.
Also, holy shit the bees.
December 18, 2008
Posted to my Livejournal in January 2009:
The book jacket caught me on this one, both the cover and the description of the plot. And I liked the book, though I'm not exactly sure what the hell happened at every turn. I don't think authors should hit their readers over the head with What It All Means, but in this case, I needed the various mysteries to be tied together a little bit more. Twins Rachel and Adam are sent to stay in a tiny village in England with their grandmother while their parents divorce, and this village has a disturbing past which Rachel and Adam, because of their birth, seem destined to uncover for all to see. A preternatural young boy named Gabriel makes friends with the twins, but he has an agenda that is opposite of the villagers -- he wants to uncover the truth, they want to hide it. There's a three-sided blade called the triskellion, a chalk circle on a hill under which something important is buried, a TV crew angling to film an archeological dig of this hill, and villagers meeting in secret in the woods to do terrible things. Oh, and there are bees -- lots of bees. Sometimes, this really reminded me of The Wicker Man, but in a good way, not in a "Nicolas Cage running through through the woods like an idiot and falling into one incomprehensible plot hole after another" way. There's the whole bee thing, and the close-mouthed small town villagers with a dark secret, and the pagan rituals, and wow, this really is like The Wicker Man. Except this has an alien. I think. Like I said, I'm not sure what happened at the end. I wouldn't say this is an excellent read, because the writing was a little flat, but I did really find the mystery intriguing, and I liked the heavy, atmospheric mood, so if there is a second book like Amazon says there is, I'll read it .
The book jacket caught me on this one, both the cover and the description of the plot. And I liked the book, though I'm not exactly sure what the hell happened at every turn. I don't think authors should hit their readers over the head with What It All Means, but in this case, I needed the various mysteries to be tied together a little bit more. Twins Rachel and Adam are sent to stay in a tiny village in England with their grandmother while their parents divorce, and this village has a disturbing past which Rachel and Adam, because of their birth, seem destined to uncover for all to see. A preternatural young boy named Gabriel makes friends with the twins, but he has an agenda that is opposite of the villagers -- he wants to uncover the truth, they want to hide it. There's a three-sided blade called the triskellion, a chalk circle on a hill under which something important is buried, a TV crew angling to film an archeological dig of this hill, and villagers meeting in secret in the woods to do terrible things. Oh, and there are bees -- lots of bees. Sometimes, this really reminded me of The Wicker Man, but in a good way, not in a "Nicolas Cage running through through the woods like an idiot and falling into one incomprehensible plot hole after another" way. There's the whole bee thing, and the close-mouthed small town villagers with a dark secret, and the pagan rituals, and wow, this really is like The Wicker Man. Except this has an alien. I think. Like I said, I'm not sure what happened at the end. I wouldn't say this is an excellent read, because the writing was a little flat, but I did really find the mystery intriguing, and I liked the heavy, atmospheric mood, so if there is a second book like Amazon says there is, I'll read it .
July 3, 2020
4.5 ⭐ The nostalgia is real for this one and idk why this isn't more hyped up as a young teen read. It's been years but it still holds up. Some of the shine has come off my fav character because I'm now looking at it with an adult perspective of questioning how kids get away with doing these things. The reveals seem really obvious now as well and a lot easier to pick up on. The writing is easy and quick to fly through in an addictive way, especially towardsthe end. I still think this is such a unique book in its mixture of archeological history and the supernatural and I love the cult vibes. I don't think I'll ever stop loving this book even if it feels more childish in some parts than it used to.
June 11, 2026
I completely forgot this was a book about aliens. Another series in the “maybe donate” pile, another magic twins book. More sound politics overall than the last one, though. I just don’t know why he ended up being an alien.
What I did remember from this book was a) the bees, b) the shape I could never draw symmetrically, and c) the romance plotline. There’s some weird soulmatism happening here that I absolutely ate up as a kid. It’s a LITTLE weirder reading it a second time but I still understand where I was coming from. There’s some good tropes, just some interesting angles as well. To keep it memorable.
One of the characters is, as told by genetics or reincarnation, both mother and child in the paradigm set up by shared prophetic dreams; Rachel resembles both the ailing woman and one in the set of twins birthed by the woman, not just because they’re literally both her ancestors so duh— the story goes out of its way to frame Rachel in comparison to both figures, a framing very different from how Adam is described by the text, mainly centering on: Rachel has a crush on Gabriel. Gabriel knows this— seems to expect it, maybe reciprocates it, feels a special fondness towards her at the very least. Gabriel goes out of his way to protect her, moreso than he does Adam, and though he doesn’t tell either of them what’s going on, he leads them through the motions as though he knows what’s supposed to happen next. (He is also inside of their heads and can speak to them telepathically, all the time, any time he wants. This is regarded as a comforting fact.)
Unlike Adam and Rachel, who are descended from the original couple in their prophetic dreams, Gabriel reveals himself to be *literally* The Guy From That Couple, just taking the shape of a teenager, which he can do Because Alien, to right an injustice of burial rites faced by their ancestors/himself. Unless I’m understanding this wrong at MINIMUM they have shared ancestors but I’m PRETTY SURE he said haha yeah that’s me. I’m an aspect of your Mesolithic grandpa. Like in an abstract way. Thanks for helping me find my spaceship home you’re both part alien in case that wasn’t clear byeeeeeee
(Adam doesn’t get to be part of this dynamic. Adam gets rebirthed by a tree, pushed out of its earthen womb. There’s amniotic fluid and everything but that’s all he gets.)
So there’s all that crazy shit not really explored or questioned by the text, and it does rely on blood and heritage to justify the kids’ place in all of this, but it does explicitly condemn Hilary’s fascistic druidic cult. If nothing else, it very intentionally says weird pagan Nazis are bad. Authoritarianism, rule of violence, and fear of race mixing are clearly posed as reactionary evils— it even goes as far as making the kids’ grandparents on their dad’s side Holocaust survivors to give them that extra buy-in. It also says that if you want to hit a racially ambiguous boy with your motorcycle, he might kill you badly with his mind powers, because maybe his racial ambiguity is because he comes from outer space.
The alien thing is probably the weakest point in the book’s politics, not just because it makes the only explicit person of color not actually From a real place, but because it hearkens to that “aliens built the pyramids!” type conspiracy and others of its ilk. Like with the Alchemyst and Mantracks, Triskellion loses some of its archaeological credibility (which it cares about building WAY more than the Alchemyst does) by paying homage to History Channel garbage theory instead of respecting the culture that actually created these landmarks— though it’s at least way more harmless to say aliens made chalk circles in England than pyramids in Egypt, I’d say. And, despite my whole paragraph, it’s honestly way more refreshing and fun than if it had been like, idk, witchcraft or something. For as reasonable of a book as we got, I’ll take aliens. Fuck yeah aliens.
And I respect the vagueness with which it goes about it— the whole book had a nice way of letting something exist in the story for a while before needing to explain it. And I’m being kind of cynical in the alien rant— you can feel the attention and care put into researching the field and the history. He seems like a guy who just says “what if... science AND aliens.” I’m remembering more shifty New Age bullshit in the sequels, so we’ll see how well he holds the line from here.
(Also, it’s crazy how the sneak peak of the second book completely ruins the peace of the ending of this one. Like, I respect a standalone with skippable sequels, but if you were going to include the teaser anyway, why not just make it the ending of the first book?) Three AWESOME LASER-BLASTING ARTIFACTS out of five.
What I did remember from this book was a) the bees, b) the shape I could never draw symmetrically, and c) the romance plotline. There’s some weird soulmatism happening here that I absolutely ate up as a kid. It’s a LITTLE weirder reading it a second time but I still understand where I was coming from. There’s some good tropes, just some interesting angles as well. To keep it memorable.
One of the characters is, as told by genetics or reincarnation, both mother and child in the paradigm set up by shared prophetic dreams; Rachel resembles both the ailing woman and one in the set of twins birthed by the woman, not just because they’re literally both her ancestors so duh— the story goes out of its way to frame Rachel in comparison to both figures, a framing very different from how Adam is described by the text, mainly centering on: Rachel has a crush on Gabriel. Gabriel knows this— seems to expect it, maybe reciprocates it, feels a special fondness towards her at the very least. Gabriel goes out of his way to protect her, moreso than he does Adam, and though he doesn’t tell either of them what’s going on, he leads them through the motions as though he knows what’s supposed to happen next. (He is also inside of their heads and can speak to them telepathically, all the time, any time he wants. This is regarded as a comforting fact.)
Unlike Adam and Rachel, who are descended from the original couple in their prophetic dreams, Gabriel reveals himself to be *literally* The Guy From That Couple, just taking the shape of a teenager, which he can do Because Alien, to right an injustice of burial rites faced by their ancestors/himself. Unless I’m understanding this wrong at MINIMUM they have shared ancestors but I’m PRETTY SURE he said haha yeah that’s me. I’m an aspect of your Mesolithic grandpa. Like in an abstract way. Thanks for helping me find my spaceship home you’re both part alien in case that wasn’t clear byeeeeeee
(Adam doesn’t get to be part of this dynamic. Adam gets rebirthed by a tree, pushed out of its earthen womb. There’s amniotic fluid and everything but that’s all he gets.)
So there’s all that crazy shit not really explored or questioned by the text, and it does rely on blood and heritage to justify the kids’ place in all of this, but it does explicitly condemn Hilary’s fascistic druidic cult. If nothing else, it very intentionally says weird pagan Nazis are bad. Authoritarianism, rule of violence, and fear of race mixing are clearly posed as reactionary evils— it even goes as far as making the kids’ grandparents on their dad’s side Holocaust survivors to give them that extra buy-in. It also says that if you want to hit a racially ambiguous boy with your motorcycle, he might kill you badly with his mind powers, because maybe his racial ambiguity is because he comes from outer space.
The alien thing is probably the weakest point in the book’s politics, not just because it makes the only explicit person of color not actually From a real place, but because it hearkens to that “aliens built the pyramids!” type conspiracy and others of its ilk. Like with the Alchemyst and Mantracks, Triskellion loses some of its archaeological credibility (which it cares about building WAY more than the Alchemyst does) by paying homage to History Channel garbage theory instead of respecting the culture that actually created these landmarks— though it’s at least way more harmless to say aliens made chalk circles in England than pyramids in Egypt, I’d say. And, despite my whole paragraph, it’s honestly way more refreshing and fun than if it had been like, idk, witchcraft or something. For as reasonable of a book as we got, I’ll take aliens. Fuck yeah aliens.
And I respect the vagueness with which it goes about it— the whole book had a nice way of letting something exist in the story for a while before needing to explain it. And I’m being kind of cynical in the alien rant— you can feel the attention and care put into researching the field and the history. He seems like a guy who just says “what if... science AND aliens.” I’m remembering more shifty New Age bullshit in the sequels, so we’ll see how well he holds the line from here.
(Also, it’s crazy how the sneak peak of the second book completely ruins the peace of the ending of this one. Like, I respect a standalone with skippable sequels, but if you were going to include the teaser anyway, why not just make it the ending of the first book?) Three AWESOME LASER-BLASTING ARTIFACTS out of five.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 25, 2008
This is a fast-paced adventure that middle readers ought to love. When their parents divorce, Adam and Rachel Newman are sent to England to live with their grandmother in the little town of Triskellion. Triskellion is a town with a rich past, full of secrets which some prefer remain hidden. Sinister townsfolk, ancient artifacts, and supernatural elements combine to give Adam and Rachel a summer they will never forget. Adam and Rachel are appealing characters and easy to identify with, but some of the villains seemed a bit caricatured. I wasn't convinced by the way the archaeological excavations were portrayed, and the ending left me a little bit cold. However, as a whole this book reminded me of some of my favorite readers from my preteen and early adolescent years, such as Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Shadows on the Wall, and I think it could very well get kids interested in learning more about Britain's rich prehistoric past.
June 7, 2008
A fun read! It was an archeology mystery/thriller/sci-fi book for teens with a fun dose of fact thrown in. There were a few elements at the beginning which were obvious devices to add an air of mystery and danger. Upon completing the book and having all mysteries solved, they didn’t really fit in in a satisfactory way. She had enough neat stuff going on—they didn’t really need to be thrown in as well.
August 12, 2009
wow. i just gotta say that i honestly didn't think this book was gonna be this good. boy was i wrong! i have never read anything quite like it. i loved the suspense, action, and even the confusion. the ending was a bit of a bummer but that just makes me want to read more. i would explain but then it would give away the ending so....
January 30, 2015
This book has some mystery to it which is the only thing had me going. I wanted to figure out what the hell was going to happen to the twins. I'm still very confused on what I just read. To be honest I'm not 100% if I will read the 2nd book. I was hoping it would just hurry up and finish when i got to the last few chapters.
January 9, 2013
An intoxicating and amazing read. This author has given me something that other authors have failed to give me: fear and suspense that is so strong that you find yourself wrapped up in your own fear.
July 23, 2019
I am confusion
May 15, 2025
J’ai bien aimé le mélange de King (surnaturel, thriller) et de Barjavel (archéologie, historique). J’ai quand même trouvé que l’intrigue prenait du temps a s’installer, ce qui fait que j’ai faillit laisser tomber plusieurs fois
Aussi, la fin est quand même assez décevante (la mort de Celia qui n’a aucun interêt, l’arrivée de la mère aussi qui est un peu trop facile), quand toute l’intrigue était enfin posée je me surprenais à essayer de devenir quelle était la solution à tout ceci. J’essaie encore de la deviner. Certains points n’étaient pas assez élaborés (l’histoire d’amour entre Gabriel et Rachel ? Alors que c’est plutôt censé être une figure paternelle pour elle ? Et le rôle du Triskellion là dedans ? Pourquoi fallait il absolument le réunir ? Qu’est ce que ça fait à Gabriel que ses ancêtres aient retrouvés leurs cœurs ?)
Aussi, la fin est quand même assez décevante (la mort de Celia qui n’a aucun interêt, l’arrivée de la mère aussi qui est un peu trop facile), quand toute l’intrigue était enfin posée je me surprenais à essayer de devenir quelle était la solution à tout ceci. J’essaie encore de la deviner. Certains points n’étaient pas assez élaborés (l’histoire d’amour entre Gabriel et Rachel ? Alors que c’est plutôt censé être une figure paternelle pour elle ? Et le rôle du Triskellion là dedans ? Pourquoi fallait il absolument le réunir ? Qu’est ce que ça fait à Gabriel que ses ancêtres aient retrouvés leurs cœurs ?)
August 12, 2025
Rachel and Adam grew up in New York but their mum grew up in a small English Village called 'Triskellion' and they are sent to stay with their gran there for the summer while her parents sort out a divorce.
Immediately the town seems strange and a weird 3 pointed symbol appears everywhere. The twins start to uncover some mysteries and get into all sorts of trouble.
The book is an easy read, at 378 pages I finished it in less than 3 hours. It wasn't the most exciting of reads but it kept me interested enough to keep going. The characters are ok, i like the bond between the twins and they strangeness of Gabriel.
Not a bad read and I will finish the series but not something I am massively excited about either.
Immediately the town seems strange and a weird 3 pointed symbol appears everywhere. The twins start to uncover some mysteries and get into all sorts of trouble.
The book is an easy read, at 378 pages I finished it in less than 3 hours. It wasn't the most exciting of reads but it kept me interested enough to keep going. The characters are ok, i like the bond between the twins and they strangeness of Gabriel.
Not a bad read and I will finish the series but not something I am massively excited about either.
April 13, 2018
The Triskellion series is for young adult readers, but not for the faint hearted. As the story progresses it becomes darker, threatening and more sinister, revealing an ancient rural cult with dubious practices and paranormal activity that its members will stop at nothing to protect.
These books are extremely well-written, yet very accessible, with well-developed characters who slowly evolve, discovering their inner strengths and their true identities. The plot continues to twist right up to the very end of the trilogy. Eerie.
These books are extremely well-written, yet very accessible, with well-developed characters who slowly evolve, discovering their inner strengths and their true identities. The plot continues to twist right up to the very end of the trilogy. Eerie.
December 20, 2024
I bought this book because of the cover and the title. I'm from Devon so it felt like a Cornish name. The village was very much like some of the wee villages in the South West of England, and the characters were great.
It was an interesting story of magic and aliens. The dreams and family history didn't work 100% but it is fiction.
I though the Green Men villagers gave Pagans a bad name too! lol!
But hey ho, great for a quick read.
It was an interesting story of magic and aliens. The dreams and family history didn't work 100% but it is fiction.
I though the Green Men villagers gave Pagans a bad name too! lol!
But hey ho, great for a quick read.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 4, 2017
Listened to the audiobook. Well read.
Intriguing, kept me guessing throughout the story. Left a few unanswered questions though, like why burying the maiden and knight without their hearts outside the village actually did and what the triskellion actually did for them. Didn't really resolve all my answers I didn't think.
Curious enough that I'll continue the series.
Intriguing, kept me guessing throughout the story. Left a few unanswered questions though, like why burying the maiden and knight without their hearts outside the village actually did and what the triskellion actually did for them. Didn't really resolve all my answers I didn't think.
Curious enough that I'll continue the series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 7, 2019
I liked that this was different from other YA sci-fi I've read - there was a genuine sense of mystery where it wasn't obvious what was going to happen, and I appreciated that. It did feel much more like the introduction to a story rather than a stand-alone book in itself though, all set-up without much payoff yet.
Read
September 25, 2021ah yes, the weird alien(?) trilogy I read as a child that was both creepy af and alluringly fascinating
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Book Blog | Writer Website | Twitter | Instagram
July 20, 2023
If you ask me what I read, I couldn't tell you. And it was actually not even really eventful. And yet it kept me reading, wanting to know what happens next. (The ending was a bit anticlimactic, I have to admit).
I finished this in 3 days. And I really want to read book 2 and 3. Too bad our library doesn't have those, so it'll have to wait.
I finished this in 3 days. And I really want to read book 2 and 3. Too bad our library doesn't have those, so it'll have to wait.
May 27, 2018
It kept me interested enough to want to finish it but I don't know if I'll be buying the next 2 books. I enjoyed it but I don't know if I care enough about Rachel and Adam to read 2 more books.
I'll be writing a full review on my blog https://www.shelllouise.co.uk
I'll be writing a full review on my blog https://www.shelllouise.co.uk
September 28, 2021
Can't fault it so had to give it 5. Quick, easy, flowing read. Good characters. Good story. Good setting. Bit of mystery, tragedy, love and crime. What more does one need for a great YA? Highly recommend to all YAs.
March 8, 2023
I kept thinking the twist at the end would have to be something really great to tie up all the random loose ends. It wasn't. I'm annoyed that I wasted my time only to be left with the stupidest ending ever. 😒
February 8, 2018
I know I am not the audience for this book and so I hesitate to give it such a poor rating, but I just did not enjoy the book. I found it quite boring.
June 29, 2019
Definitely intend to read next one in series
August 9, 2019
So much potential but ultimately I found it really boring! I am so keen to find texts the grip young people and this is not one of them.
June 20, 2020
One of my favourite books of all time, I always recommend this trilogy to anyone. So many twists and turns mixed with history. Just incredible!
August 14, 2020
D. fiction, YA, fantasy, dark
April 20, 2021
Quite a good book, enjoyable and easy to read but felt a bit long and slow at times
Read
May 15, 2021DNF - I probably would have kept reading this book, if i didn't buy a bunch of books i was more excited about in the middle of it.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 171 reviews