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  • Published: 5 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781761355479
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

Don't Let Them Leave




A compelling and spooky thriller in the best classic ghost story tradition. Inspired by Stephen King, Mike Lucas is a modern master of suspense.

One island.
One house.
One curse.

Ghosts aren’t real and houses can’t come to life.

Charlotte knows these facts to be true.

Yet when she, Jack and Emily are orphaned and sent to live with their grandmother on remote Black Island, Charlotte begins to realise that only one thing is certain: they shouldn’t be there.

But will they ever be able to leave?

  • Published: 5 May 2026
  • ISBN: 9781761355479
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 320

About the author

Mike Lucas

Mike Lucas is an author of picture books and young adult novels. His YA fiction has been shortlisted for the Readings Book Prize, CBCA Book of the Year Awards and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. His picture book Where is Cheeky Monster? won the 2025 Speech Pathology Award for children from birth to 3 years. Mike presents writing and poetry workshops at schools, owns a bookshop in Blackwood, South Australia, and works as a full-time engineer. He has very little time to sleep, but often thinks up a poem or two while he does.

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