The Reach of Children

He spoke into the box … but then, the box spoke back.

Daniel Powell is ten years old when his sickly mother passes away. Her young death leaves Daniel with only his father too soon. Distraught, his father starts to fall apart. Daniel also is unable to let her go.

After the funeral, Daniel notices his father secretly talking to a large coffin-like box that has appeared underneath his bed. His father orders him not to enter his room.

Intrigued and confused by what it is doing there, Daniel cannot help but wonder what lies inside.

Then one day his father goes out. Daniel is left alone in the house with the mysterious box. He taps the box and the box taps back. When he scrapes his nails along it, he hears the same sound.

He convinces himself that it must be an echo. But when Daniel whispers to the box of his troubles, the box answers back...

It is a voice that he does not recognise, yet this voice knows so much.

Tim Lebbon’s The Reach of Children is a chilling horror tale, which will leave you spooked and moved in one sitting.

Praise for Tim Lebbon’s works:

“Beautifully written and mysterious.” – Richard Laymon

“Tim Lebbon displays the sort of cool irony and uncanny mood-making that drive the best ‘Twilight Zone’ stories.” – New York Times Book Review

“At the end, you are left with … an impression of a nightmare from which you have awakened and cannot totally shake.” – Dark Echo

“One of the most powerful new voices to come along in the genre … Lebbon’s work is infused with the contemporary realism of Stephen King and … the lyricism of Ray Bradbury.” –– Fangoria

“Lebbon is a genuinely masterful writer … fresh ideas, shimmering prose, and often terrifying scenarios.” – Rue Morgue

“A masterpiece of traditional horror, graced with nuggets of sex and splatter. I really can’t praise it enough. It shot me to pieces.” – D.F. Lewis

“a terrific, very scary novella.” – Ellen Datlow

“With The Reach of Children, Lebbon has exceeded even his former astounding works.” – Horror World

“Lebbon has written one of the best and most emotionally convincing stories about death that I have ever read.” – Michael Marshall Smith

“Even if you haven’t lost a parent, or anyone truly close to you, REACH will give you a true sense of the kind of deep, unyielding sadness such an event brings. It’s a powerful book, and one that deserves to be read.” – Bookgasm

“For those who have not yet sampled Lebbon’s doom-laden tales of cosmic consequence, this is a fine place to start.” – Peter Crowther

“… striking and innovative” – Nick Gevers, SF Site

TIM LEBBON is a New York Times-bestselling writer from South Wales. He’s had over thirty novels published to date, as well as hundreds of novellas and short stories. His latest novel is the thriller The Hunt, and other recent releases include The Silence and Alien: Out of the Shadows. He has won four British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award, and a Scribe Award, and has been a finalist for World Fantasy, International Horror Guild and Shirley Jackson Awards. Future books include The Rage War (an Alien/Predator trilogy), and the Relics trilogy from Titan.
The movie of his story Pay the Ghost, starring Nicolas Cage, was released September 2015, and other projects in development include Playtime (an original script with Stephen Volk), My Haunted House with Gravy Media, The Hunt, Exorcising Angels (based on a novella with Simon Clark), and a TV Series proposal of The Silence.