Conrad's Fate (The Chrestomanci)

In Conrad's Fate, his uncle tells twelve-year-old Conrad Tesdinic that his constant and terrible luck is the result of a shocking dose of bad karma that within the year could threaten his very existence. He is despatched at once to Stallery Mansion, high in the mountainous Alps above his hometown of Stallchester, to work in disguise as a servant. There, in the magical fortress that seems to dominate the whole town, he must infiltrate its workings and seek out the person who has interfered so disastrously with his fate.

Along the way, Conrad strikes up a friendship with a mysterious, self-assured older boy, who has a mission of his own--to find his friend Millie who has hidden herself thereabouts. The discovery that Stallery Mansion lays on a `probability fault' adds gloriously to the wonderment and adventure that inevitably follows.

In some ways a prequel to the earlier novels, in that this book features Chant as a teenager before his Chrestomanci guise, there is definitely no need, however, to read it first. Any of other titles such as Witch Week or The Lives of Christopher Chant will be equally superb introductions to this infamous creation and just as entertaining. (Age 10 and over) --John McLay