The Lurkers was published by Usborne in October 2006.
When Verity sees a strange semi-visible figure, her brother John tells her it is a harmless Lurker. But Lurkers feed on human imagination, and this one is using John for sinister purposes...
"This is a multi-layered read that youngsters can take at any level and enjoy. On the one hand it's a fast and engaging yarn about demon possession and on the other a Truth versus Evil morality tale. It has pace and quality plotting and is admirably grounded in a real place (Bristol) despite its more fantastical elements. Good to have a girl as the St George/saviour character." Books for Keeps
"Truly hair-raising and heart-stopping, this chilling tale displays Butler's unusual capacity for creating quite outstandingly malign and monstrous horrors. They're also hard to get out of your head, afterwards; you have been warned." Douglas Hill in Armadillo
"Shades of The Midwich Cuckoos! This is a brilliantly frightening short novel which, like Wyndham's seminal work of the 1950s, imagines the consequences of an evil alien life force taking over the minds of an ordinary population. Butler places the action in the experience of a very ordinary Tesco-shopping fourteen year old, and her ten year old brother, which makes it all the more terrifying for its readership - it really could happen to them. What is really frightening is that Verity seems to be the only one who sees what is going on, as everyone else has been brainwashed into ignoring the presence of the Lurkers. It's also an interesting comment on the power of mass hysteria..." Bridget Carrington in Write Away
"This is one of those books that could give you goose bumps and have you looking from the corner of your eye when things are not quite how you had thought they were... This is an excellent children's story based on a marvellous concept." BookLore Review
"Perceived through the eyes of 14-year-old Verity, though focusing mainly on her 10-year-old brother John, the events in Charles Butler's novel are quite spooky - but entertainingly so. What would appear to be a very ordinary Bristol family has its everyday life thrown into some disarray when John, a particularly intelligent boy, is visited by Galder, a 'lurker' from beyond the everyday world. The visitor's mission, it would seem, is to enter and take over the boy's imagination, as a prelude to a takeover of humanity as a whole. If such a fate is to be avoided, it will be up to Verity, living up to the significance of her name, to perceive the truth of what is happening and to react to it truthfully: 'That's what Verity means: I'm a truth-seeking missile.' Butler, with an engagingly light touch, combines echoes of Arthurian legend and doom-laden apocalyptic intimations to add atmosphere to a novel in which the natural and supernatural are convincingly aligned; mainly for pre-teenage readers, it will provide an enjoyable read." Robert Dunbar in School Librarian
"At last - post structuralism for kids!" Flapjack Magazine
Shortlisted for the Southern Schools Book Award, 2007.
