Maddie Finn lives with her mother above a converted stable in the grounds of a big house owned by the gloomy Harold Delamore. It's their cosy burrow against the world , and Maddie's favourite task is to walk Sal, Mr Delamore's rare, prize-winning dog. But one day Maddie and her mother are given two months notice by the trouble-making Delia Delamore home from her boarding school or has she been expelled?

And when Maddie takes Sal for a walk the next morning, Delia comes too... Into a dark alley, where a gang of kidnappers is waiting ... But who do they want?

MADDIE FINN is a tense, exciting story of a difficult friendship by the best-selling author of THE BAMBOO FLUTE and THE DIVINE WIND.