Books with author Craig McLachlan

David Apollo and his friends are having a perfectly ordinary day until the man in the samurai armour comes staggering out of the broom closet and squashes their history assignment.He hands David a key that he claims can open the secret doors between worlds – a key that may unlock the mystery of the disappearance of David’s father on an archaeological expedition five years earlier. Using the key to escape an army of marauding monsters, David and his friends Milo and Futz suddenly find themselves in a strange new world aboard the Valiant, a warship on a secret mission to rescue an imprisoned king.When the mission takes an unexpected turn, the boys are faced with man-eating Troglodytes, demented hotel managers and a nasty pirate named Sharkface, who is feared throughout the land for his evil disposition and terrifying (but slightly impractical) dental work. Sharkface wants the key because he believes it will unlock a priceless treasure and isn’t about to let a skinny 15-year-old history buff stand in his way.Desperate to solve the mystery of the key and his father’s disappearance, David and his friends are caught up in a chase that will take them to the end of the world – and beyond.

Three young girls are kidnapped with no clues as to who took them or why. Six years later, they’re finally found, living naked and feral in the wilderness. Two of the girls are recovered by authorities, but the third escapes. After years of emotional and physical rehabilitation, sixteen-year-olds Skylar and Haley are ready to rejoin society and enter high school. But, when Skylar begins receiving threatening letters written in animal blood, she realizes that the normal life they’ve been constructing is about to fall apart around them.Skylar quickly joins the yearbook club and begins learning how to navigate the complex social hierarchy of teenagers, but Haley remains reclusive and withdrawn. Haley dreads that if they interact and get too close to their peers, someone will eventually uncover their past. A life Haley still misses, but Skylar doesn’t.Skylar becomes attracted to Trevor, the fallen school heartthrob, after she discovers his scent is strangely familiar to her. But Trevor shows no interest in Skylar despite her flirtatious and often animalistic advances. As the blood letters escalate in intensity and an unforeseen obstacle creates even more confusion, Skylar must risk exposing their past – and her own buried, horrible secret – to uncover the stalker before it’s too late.A secret that can turn her back into the feral creature she once was and loathes.

In the second volume of the Keys series, David Apollo and his friends Milo and Futz barely escape a volcanic eruption and find themselves in the village of Orlok, where things aren’t much better.Strange lights and noises are emanating from the castle at the far end of the valley. A mysterious Beast is stalking the woods, picking off anyone foolish enough to go wandering alone. Even worse, a sleeping sickness is causing victims to sprout fangs and express more than a passing interest in biting their neighbour’s throats.Passing themselves off as university professors sent to investigate the strange phenomena, the boys discover that it may all be part of a secret plan orchestrated by an evil tyrant named Cronus, a shadowy figure who may know a lot more about the keys – and the disappearance of David’s father – than they suspect.

Three young girls are kidnapped with no clues as to who took them or why. Six years later, they’re finally found, living naked and feral in the wilderness. Two of the girls are recovered by authorities, but the third escapes. After years of emotional and physical rehabilitation, sixteen-year-olds Skylar and Haley are ready to rejoin society and enter high school. But, when Skylar begins receiving threatening letters written in animal blood, she realizes that the normal life they’ve been constructing is about to fall apart around them.Skylar quickly joins the yearbook club and begins learning how to navigate the complex social hierarchy of teenagers, but Haley remains reclusive and withdrawn. Haley dreads that if they interact and get too close to their peers, someone will eventually uncover their past. A life Haley still misses, but Skylar doesn’t.Skylar becomes attracted to Trevor, the fallen school heartthrob, after she discovers his scent is strangely familiar to her. But Trevor shows no interest in Skylar despite her flirtatious and often animalistic advances. As the blood letters escalate in intensity and an unforeseen obstacle creates even more confusion, Skylar must risk exposing their past – and her own buried, horrible secret – to uncover the stalker before it’s too late.A secret that can turn her back into the feral creature she once was and loathes.

On his deathbed, Kia's father discloses a secret to her alone: a magnificent and unique diamond he has been hiding for years. Fearing he stole it, she too keeps it secret. She learns it comes from the distant colonized planet of Malem, where her father caught the illness that eventually killed him. Now she is even more convinced he stole it, as it is illegal for any off-worlder to possess a Malemese diamond. When 16-yr-old Kia is training to be a translator, she is co-opted by a series of events into travelling as a translator to Malem. Using her skill in languages and another skill she picked up after her father's death, the skill of picking locks - she unravels the secret of the mysterious gem and learns what she must do to set things right: return the diamond to its original owner. But how will she find out who that is when no one can know that she, an off-worlder, has a Malemese diamond? And how can she bear to part with this last link to her father? Kia is quirky, with an ironic sense of humour and a loner. Her sidekick, Agatha, is hopeless in languages and naive to the point of idiocy in Kia's opinion, but possesses the wisdom and compassion Kia needs.

What if someone you love gambled on her life... Games are serious business on Salaria, and the stakes are high. When Kia's older sister, in a desperate bid to erase their family debt, loses the game and forfeits her freedom, Kia is determined to rescue her. When Kia arrives on Salaria, she learns it's a world where a few key players control the board, and the pawns are ready to revolt. Kia joins the conflict in order to save her sister. As if she doesn't already have enough to handle, Agatha, the maddeningly calm Select who lives life both by-the-book and off-the-cuff -- and always at the wrong time, according to Kia -- shows up to help, along with handsome Norio, a strong-willed desert girl with her own agenda, and a group of Salarian teens earning their rite of passage in the treacherous desert game. What can an interpreter and former thief possibly do in the midst of all this to keep the people she loves alive?