Death or Ice Cream?

Praise for The Thornthwaite Inheritance: Beautifully simple comic ideas that children instantly love...This is a book certain to make family holidays go with a bang. --The Times (UK)

Overview

In the peculiar town of Larkin Mills, death might literally come knocking on your door. Jones cleverly reworks the tale of Lucifer s fall from grace in this interwoven collection of 13 short stories, which reveal Larkin Mills as the epicenter of the centuries-old battle between good and evil. Bouncing around in time, the stories create a patchwork history of the town by subtly drawing connections between characters and events. Prime among them is a mysterious archaeological discovery that leaves a girl called Park orphaned and working at Madam Letrec's wax museum, where she and another boy become instrumental in bringing the divine feud to a head. As the individual stories intersect, a larger narrative unfolds, and always off to the side are an inventive ice-cream vendor (Honeycomb Agony or Vanilla Vengeance, anyone?) and an unusual door-to-door salesman. While the idea of the fallen angel forms the twisting backbone of the collection, its role is more philosophical than theological, making this smart and morbidly funny novel ideal for readers who cut their teeth on Roald Dahl. --Julia Smith, Booklist

Tragically, after finishing this book, author Gareth P. Jones drowned in a vat of ice cream. In life, Gareth was a moderately known British children's author of over twenty-five books. He tackled subjects such as ninja meerkats, steampunk pirates, dragon detectives, and dinosaur parties. Gareth lived a full and happy life that involved visiting schools, edit-producing TV programs, singing silly songs on his ukulele and hanging out with his wife, Lisa, and their two children, Herbie and Autumn. Gareth's favorite flavor of ice cream was salted caramel, although it is generally believed that he drowned in vanilla. The epitaph on his gravestone reads: Follow Gareth at garethwrites.co.uk or on Twitter @jonesgareth.