Down in the Dark

About the Book

When he hits the school bully (and the son of the Town Mayor Harry Spindle) fifteen year old Nelson Burns is excluded from school and quickly heading for the scrapheap. Nelson lands himself a part time job at the scrapyard owned by the infamous Tommy Ratson and his three legged, one eyed yard dog Zombie, who strikes up an instant friendship with Nelson’s pet mongrel, Kickstart.

When Nelson’s best friend Sparky suggests they can make their fortune digging fluorspar out of a local deserted mine the temptation for some adventure proves too strong. The only trouble is the mine is owned by Harry Spindle, who also happens to own the waste company that collects the town’s rubbish.

When people in the town start acting more and more bizarrely Nelson starts to realise that it may have something to do with Harry Spindle, his menacing hench man, Cold Eyes, his recycling facility and the town’s water supply.

Nelson realises that, although he has to turn his life around, it’s down to him alone to prevent a huge environmental disaster from taking place.

About the Author

Mike Tweddle presently works in and around Durham, North East England, where he performs environmental audits of quarries, mines and waste sites. It is experiences gained in the ten years that he has been in this job that helped forge the idea for “Down in the Dark”. The premise for the story is based, loosely, on events and characters that Mike has encountered in his career, some of which have been outrageous, newsworthy and extraordinary and most of which are the result of a rather warped imagination! Mike started writing punk and political fanzines, before travelling the world on a shoestring, gaining a 1st class degree in Environmental Technology from Durham University and writing the screenplay for the movie “The Last Blast”. He lives in North East England with Cath and their sons, Max and Jake.