Phillip Gwynne is an Australian children’s book author. Before becoming a writer, he was a professional footballer, after which he worked as a teacher in Thailand and a programmer in Belgium. His books include the six-book Debt series: Catch the Zolt, Turn off the Lights, Bring Back Cerberus, Fetch the Treasure Hunter, Yamashita’s Gold, and Take a Life. He lives in Australia.
Jill Grinbeg
Pay the debt or lose a pound of flesh.
It’s a beautiful day in paradise. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. And Dom Silvagni, indifferent student and elite middle-distance runner, is turning fifteen.
But instead of cake and candles, Dom Silvagni is presented with the most unlikely gift for his birthday: an ancient family debt to an organisation so secretive and powerful, they are only known as The Debt. The Debt’s terms are not negotiable: Dom must
perform six Herculean tasks or they’ll take a pound of flesh.
Before long Dom has his first instalment – Catch The Zolt—the seventeen-year-old
Facebook Bandit with a penchant for stealing light aircraft. But getting close to The Zolt means being nice to the smug, self-obsessed Tristan, and involving Imogen, the only girl close to Dom’s heart.
The more Dom discovers, the less he seems to know. Meanwhile The Debt
want their payment … now!
Kane Miller Books
December 31, 2013
Young Adult
Fiction/Adventure
Margaret Connolly & Associates
Once upon a time, and not so long ago, I didn’t have to do this stuff: feign complete surprise, tell endless lies. But now, ever since The Debt, it seems like that’s all I do.
With Tristan in hospital and Imogen increasingly suspicious of Dom’s behaviour, Dom has had it with The Debt. But this mysterious organisation hasn’t finished with Dom. No matter how hard he runs, The Debt is not far behind.
Then he gets the next instalment, and it’s even harder than the first. Dom must turn off all of the Gold Coast’s lights during Earth Hour. But Dom is learning quickly. He has the ClamTop and a few tricks of his own, and starts plotting how to get into Diabolo Bay Power Station.
Dom’s not been tested in this way before, but his brush with The Debt has given this task an urgency he’s not faced before. And he’s starting to realise that this organisation means business. He’s not just racing against time, he’s racing for his life.
Kane Miller Books
2014
Young Adult
Fiction/Adventure
Margaret Connolly & Associates
Fifteen-year-old Dom Silvagni is cast out of his comfortable life in the Gold Coast’s Halcyon Grove when he inherits an ancient family debt to a secret and powerful organisation. He has six Herculean tasks to perform, or he will lose a pound of flesh. In book three of this high-octane series, he has to find a valuable and mysterious piece of technology.
Kane Miller Books
December 31, 2014
Young Adult
Fiction/Adventure
Margaret Connolly & Associates
So must thou bear witness also at Rome …
Dom should not be going to Rome with the rest of the track team. He wasn’t good enough. He knows it. Coach knows it. Rashid, who should be going but isn’t, knows it. But it seems The Debt has other plans.
So it’s not long before Dom finds himself in Italy receiving the fourth instalment. He is to find E Lee Marx, the world’s greatest treasure hunter who’s become a recluse following the tragic death of his nephew in a diving accident, and bring him back to the Gold Coast. It will require manipulation and deception, but Dom is fast becoming a master at both. So much so that when he’s in Italy, Dom decides to do a little digging of his own. He travels to Calabria, to the very place where The Debt originated.
But the answers Dom gets only lead to more questions. One thing is certain: whatever The Debt wants, they get.
Kane Miller Books
December 31, 2014
Young Adult
Fiction/Adventure
Margaret Connolly & Associates
The Debt was the worst thing to have come into my life. It had almost killed me about a dozen times in a dozen different ways. But here I was wanting, willing, it to contact me. To give me the next instalment.
After Rome, Dom has quit running. He’s still training, though. Swimming lap after lap of the pool. And waiting.
Until Dom receives another threatening message. In Latin. He doesn’t know who is after him now, but he hopes it’s The Debt. He’s pieced together the puzzle of the previous instalments, and he knows that the fifth one must be the search for Yamashita’s Gold – the legendary treasure looted during the Second World War that might have ended up in the waters of Diablo Bay.
But for months he’s heard nothing from The Debt. Just silence and more silence from this shadowy organisation. Could this message be it?
But if Dom goes out searching, he won’t be the only one looking for gold. And The Debt won’t be the only organisation looking for Dom. It might be desperate times, desperate measures, but there’s only one person looking out for Dom Silvagni – himself.
Kane Miller Books
2014
Young Adult
Fiction/Adventure
Margaret Connolly & Associates
I had never been so utterly, terribly alone. Who could I talk to? My parents? Sure. I wasn’t even sure who they were anymore.
Who could I ask whether killing another human being is ever justified?
Dom’s almost there. It’s the sixth instalment and the end is in sight, but he’s about to face the biggest hurdle. The Debt wants proof. Proof that Dom has the mettle to become one of them. Proof he can kill.
Dom is desperate to be rid of this debt but at what cost? Could he put a friend out of their misery? Or defend himself to the bitter end? And if he does flush out who is behind this monstrous organisation, is he ready for the truth?
This time it is not just a life at stake, it’s humanity. Dom’s humanity. And if Dom crosses the line, is there any coming back?
The chilling conclusion to the edge-of-the-seat action thriller from a masterful storyteller.
Kane Miller Books
2014
Young Adult
Fiction/Adventure
Margaret Connolly & Associates
