I’ve always loved the idea of shapeshifters.  I think my affair with them began with David Eddings’ Belgariad series where the sorcerers regularly turned into wolves, owls or hawks.  When I wrote Trail of the Huntress I had a shapeshifter, but it was an evil demon called a gorvath that used its powers to fool its victims before gutting them – nice!

During the week of World Book Day whilst bouncing up and down England as if it were a giant pinball machine, with the monsters at the controls, I managed to sneak into a bookshop and acquire a copy of the first in The Shapeshifter series by Ali Sparkes.  Finding the Fox proved to be a great buy.  I read it in two sittings – it’s compulsive stuff!

When I saw the name of the main character was Dax Jones I was a bit thrown, as Dax is a name synonymous with Star Trek for me.  Jadzia Dax and Esre Dax – both gorgeous female characters – were normally referred to as Dax, and it took a few pages for me to banish those images and replace them with a teenage boy (typical bloke, I suppose!)  It was just a few pages, though, for Ali shapes the character of Dax most skilfully and quickly plunges him into a difficult situation that triggers his first shapeshifting experience.  The shift does not go unnoticed.  With spine-tingling speed, a secret agent is on the scene, with a newspaper reporter hard on his heels.  Dax is whisked away to a secret school and his adventures become both more exciting and more dangerous.

Having raced through this fantastic book, I realised it was just the sort of thing my daughter would love to read, so I popped it in an envelope and sent it to her before the monsters dragged me back to the cave at the end of the week.  I got an email from her the other day.  Look:

Dear Dad,

Thanks for sending me the Shapeshifter book.  I read it in a day.  It was BRILLIANT! You HAVE to send me the rest of the series.  I HAVE to know what happens next.  Thanks.

Love Rachel

Would you believe it?  No ‘Are you OK, Dad?’ or ‘We’re missing you, Dad’ or ‘Are you getting enough to eat, Dad?’.  Oh, no.  All I get is ‘You HAVE to send me the rest of the series.’  I guess that says it all.  Reading the Shapeshifter series by Ali Sparkes is far more important than your Dad’s welfare, so you’d better go out and get copies right now.

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