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''The Last Apprentice''--or, alternately, ''The Spook's Apprentice'' or ''The Wardstone Chronicles'', [[MarketBasedTitle depending on where you live]]--is a series of dark YA fantasy books by Joseph Delaney.
The series chronicles the events during the training of Thomas J. Ward under the tutelage of John Gregory, the County's local Spook, whose job is to protect the locals from the dark. And what is the dark? Every horrible, evil, going-bump-in-the-night thing you can imagine, from boggarts to witches and everything in between.
The series' books include:
* ''The Spook's Apprentice'' (''Revenge of the Witch'' in the United States) - 2004
* ''The Spook's Curse'' (''Curse of the Bane'') - 2005
* ''The Spook's Secret'' (''Night of the Soul Stealer'') - 2006
* ''The Spook's Battle'' (''Attack of the Fiend'') - 2007
* ''The Spook's Mistake'' (''Wrath of the Bloodeye'') - 2008
* ''The Spook's Sacrifice'' (''Clash of the Demons'') - 2009
* ''The Spook's Nightmare'' (''Rise of the Huntress'') - 2010
* ''The Spook's Destiny'' (''Rage of the Fallen'') - 2011
* ''Spook's: I Am Grimalkin'' (''Grimalkin: The Witch Assassin'') - 2011
* ''The Spook's Blood'' (''Lure of the Dead'') - 2012
* ''Spook's: Slither's Tale'' (''Slither'') - 2012
* ''Spook's: Alice'' - (''I Am Alice'') - 2013
* ''The Spook's Revenge'' - (''Fury of the Seventh Son'') - 2013
And a number of "side" books that provide further background on the characters, creatures, and settings in-universe:
* ''The Spook's Tale'' (''The Spook's Tale and Other Horrors'') - 2009
* ''Spook's Stories: Witches'' (''A Coven of Witches'') - 2009
* ''The Spook's Bestiary'' - 2010
The series is notable for running mainly on old-school European superstitions about magic, witches, demons and the like--because even though you're likely to find the books in the children's section of the bookstore, you don't want to read these to your kid at bedtime.
And, certainly, they are not to be read after dark. [[RunningGag Especially page 47!]]
The first novel, ''The Spook's Apprentice'', will be adapted into a movie called ''Seventh Son'', starring Creator/JeffBridges, [[TheChroniclesOfNarnia Ben Barnes]], Creator/JulianneMoore, Alicia Vikander, [[ManOfSteel Antje Traue]], Creator/DjimonHounsou and [[Series/GameOfThrones Kit Harington]].
----
!! This book series provides examples of:
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: Tom's mother!]]
* ActionGirl: You don't mess with Grimalkin. The clans' s warriors are pretty frightening in general, just like the witches who stay in the Combe.
** Thorne as well, and Alice to a lesser degree.
* AllWitchesHaveCats: Surprisingly averted. While cats are occasionally mentioned as possible familiars, we've yet to see a witch who has one.
* AndIMustScream: The Spook buries witches to keep them from causing trouble. This is usually done because their spirits stick to the bones, but even live witches meet this fate. Then again, they get buried for a reason.
** [[spoiler: Alices' torture in the Fiends' domain...]]
* AnimalEyeSpy: 'Familiar' magic seems to be this.
* AntiAntiChrist: Alice.
** According to the thing itself, any pure human male child of the devil will grow to be one of his most terrible adversaries, possibly on par with Tom.
* ArbitraryScepticism: Lampshaded; the man in charge of Pendle, while otherwise a good man, is a FlatEarthAtheist who doesn't believe in witches. Tom is absolutely amazed to hear that someone could possibly believe witches don't exist while being in charge of the place ''with the biggest population of witches in the whole country''.
* ArmiesAreEvil: Among kidnappings, attacks and general destruction, armies are really unpopular in the series.
* BadassCape
* BadassGrandpa: John Gregory. He starts weakening in the last books, but he remains overall quite dangerous.
* BackFromTheDead: All witches can rise from the dead as mostly conscious zombie-like creatures, unless they're properly bound or if their heart is taken out.
* BattleCouple: Tom and Alice.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: It's safe to say that many readers have stopped bothering to keep track of how many grand prophecies people make in these books.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: It starts off as this but eventually falls to BlackAndGreyMorality as Tom has to make larger and larger compromises with the dark to the point of [[spoiler:selling his soul to The Fiend]].
** The Black/Grey becomes only stronger over time and by the end of book 7, the Spook has [[spoiler: not only TOLD Alice to use a mirror, he basically recruited Grimalkin to help destroy the Fiend.]]
* BloodMagic: One of the various types of powers witches can draw on. It's Mother Malkin's signature method.
* BoyMeetsGhoul: Tom and Alice
** Subverted because [[spoiler: They ''both'' have a nonhuman parent]].
* BurnTheWitch: One of two surefire ways to permanently destroy a witch. Unfortunately, it tends to happen to good and falsely accused witches most of the time.
** [[spoiler: Even almost happens to the Spook.]]
* CannotCrossRunningWater
* CaptainObvious: Tom Ward is also prone to this, but in the 8th book we see that even {{Satan}} himself does this:
-->"''She is trapped in the dark for eternal torment. Eternal! That means it will go on'' [[CaptainObvious forever!]]"
* TheCatCameBack: The Spook repeatedly tries to send Alice away to limit her involvement with Tom, yet they never stay separated for long.
* ChainedToARock: Tom's mother was chained to a rock with silver chains when his father first saw her. After he rescued her they got married.
* ChessWithDeath: Tom vs. the Fiend.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Alice. It would put a damper on the fun if she had to ask her mom every time she wanted to run off with Tom.
* CrapsackWorld: The county, post-Fiend.
** Even normally, it's pretty terrible, with the poverty disease, high rate of violent crime, witches, and constant threat of death at the hands of various monsters.
* CuteWitch: Alice Deane
* DarkSecret: Mam had a pretty big one.
* DealWithTheDevil: If you've gotten that far in the series, this doesn't need explaining. It's pretty hard to miss.
* DepartmentofRedundancyDepartment: From book eight we get [[spoiler: Fiend:[Alice] is trapped in the dark for eternal torment. Eternal! That means it will go on forever!]]
* DetectEvil: The chill spooks get whenever a Denizen of the Dark is near.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: From A Coven of Witches: Did [[spoiler: Grimalkin]] just stab [[spoiler:the Fiend]] in the arse?
* EldritchAbomination: Some forms of the Fiend, the Ordeen, the Bane, and many other creatures met by Tom Ward and John Gregory.
* EnemyMine:[[spoiler: Gimalkin is apparently this by the end of book seven.]]
* EmpathicWeapon: Apparently, the Destiny Blade likes Tom.
* EyeScream: Grimalkin does this to [[spoiler: the Fiend.]]
* FakingTheDead: Alice, [[spoiler: after being rolled.]]
* FedToPigs: [[spoiler:Mother Malkin shouldn't have attempted to flee through the pigpen while she was shrunk and the pigs were agitated...]]
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:The Spook's last apprentice, Billy, dies of blood loss when his hand is trapped underground with a malicious boggart. And later, Bony Lizzie removes the thumbs from his corpse.]] Additionally, the witches remove the thumb bones of enemies they kill to use as a source of power.
* ForgedByTheGods: Three legendary swords mentioned in book eight.
* FreudianTrio: Alice (Id), Tom (Ego), the Spook (Superego).
* FriendlyEnemy: In book six, [[spoiler:many witches, among them Grimalkin and Mab, put aside their differences and work with the spook-friendly troupe to stop the Ordeen]].
* GypsyCurse: The Pendle clans curse the Spook.
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Tom and Grimalkin both undergo this after learning that the one person they love most has been killed.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Tom's mother and Bill Arkwright die fighting the Ordeen and her forces.]]
** [[spoiler:Thorne as well. Though quite painfully it may have been a SenselessSacrifice, as we never learn if her actions helped Grimalkin at all.]]
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Grimalkin and Thorne are convinced that the kindly healer Agnes Sowerbutts has been killed by agents of the Fiend. They learn that she is alive but in captivity, but she is tortured to death soon after and her body is unceremoniously left on the ground.]]
* HotWitch: Mab Mouldheel.
* HumanoidAbomination: Abhumans are the deformed, monstrous children of the Fiend and one of his thousands of witch brides. They usually resemble normal people from a distance, but have a notable deformity (ranging from small tusks to full lycanthropy) and are always evil.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Or rather, I Am Not Right-Handed. A tactic used by the spooks fits this, where they carry their staffs with their right hand and quickly toss it to their left to deliver CriticalHit.
* LanguageOfMagic: The ''Old Tongue'' seems to be this, in a lost language version.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: Thorne
* LadyOfWar: Grimalkin.
* MagicalSeventhSon: Being the seventh son of a seventh son is literally a job requirement to be a spook.
* MedievalStasis: Kind of. The County is quite backward and in some isolated places castles are still very important for warfare. Only once is any sort of gun fired in the series, and soldiers (presumably from London) are the only people shown to have muskets.
* MysteriousMist: A lot of it.
* NamedWeapon: The Destiny Blade. Counts as a MeaningfulName, too.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: How many times has Tom accidentally caused the MonsterOfTheWeek (or book, rather) to end up being STRONGER as a result of not following instructions?
* NothingIsScarier: The most terrifying parts of the series, including one scene early in the first book, use this trope to great extent.
* OhCrap: You really shouldn't have given Mother Malkin those cakes, Tom.
* OnlyTheWorthyMayPass: Only true heroes may enter a sidhe.
* PunchClockVillain: Alice. While she is a witch, she does it only because she was born into that life. [[spoiler:And she's also a victim of the ploy to get Mother Malkin's strength back.]]
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Morgan.
* ReligionIsMagic: Inverted; faith won't help you at all against the dark. In fact, priests who overestimate their holy powers tend to get in trouble when they try to do a Spook's job. On the other hand, it's specified in Book Six that some religious elements, such as the monks' songs, ''have'' some actual power (in this case, restraining the Ordin)
* ScrewDestiny: The Spook claims he makes his own path. For now.
* SelkiesAndWereseals: In the fifth book, the hero is forced to separate a beautiful selkie from her aging husband. In the series, selkies age very slowly, and are considered bad luck or are taught to be prostitutes.
* SkeletonKey: Tom and Mr. Gregory have skeleton keys provided by Gregory's brother, a locksmith.
* SupernaturalSensitivity: Horn has this, in that he can detect darkness in people.
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: What spooks regularly combat.
* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler:[[{{Satan}} The Fiend]] is constantly trying this on Tom because it means he'll rule for eternity.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The County. [[spoiler: Although WordOfGod says it's based upon Lancashire in England.]]
** It's actually quite obvious to those who live there. Pendle, and Roughlee are real towns, Heysham is a real viallage and Preisttown is certainly supposed to be Preston, the small city which is the most populous town in the county even today. Caster is Lancaster the capital. The Wardstone, mentioned in the books' preface, is an actual hill called Wardstone.
* WhoYouGonnaCall: Spooks fit this to a tee.
* WickedWitch: Mother Malkin, UpToEleven. Bony Lizzie is more of a VainSorceress in terms of appearance.
* WidowWitch: Poor lonely Agnes Sowerbutts.
* WillfullyWeak: From book eight: [[spoiler: [about using serious dark magic] '''Alice:''' I've always had more power than I've shown to you, Tom.]]
* YouCantFightFate [[spoiler: Averted by the Spook in the final book. Though cursed to die alone underground, he changes his fate by dying in battle against the Fiend's army.]]
----
''The Last Apprentice''--or, alternately, ''The Spook's Apprentice'' or ''The Wardstone Chronicles'', [[MarketBasedTitle depending on where you live]]--is a series of dark YA fantasy books by Joseph Delaney.
The series chronicles the events during the training of Thomas J. Ward under the tutelage of John Gregory, the County's local Spook, whose job is to protect the locals from the dark. And what is the dark? Every horrible, evil, going-bump-in-the-night thing you can imagine, from boggarts to witches and everything in between.
The series' books include:
* ''The Spook's Apprentice'' (''Revenge of the Witch'' in the United States) - 2004
* ''The Spook's Curse'' (''Curse of the Bane'') - 2005
* ''The Spook's Secret'' (''Night of the Soul Stealer'') - 2006
* ''The Spook's Battle'' (''Attack of the Fiend'') - 2007
* ''The Spook's Mistake'' (''Wrath of the Bloodeye'') - 2008
* ''The Spook's Sacrifice'' (''Clash of the Demons'') - 2009
* ''The Spook's Nightmare'' (''Rise of the Huntress'') - 2010
* ''The Spook's Destiny'' (''Rage of the Fallen'') - 2011
* ''Spook's: I Am Grimalkin'' (''Grimalkin: The Witch Assassin'') - 2011
* ''The Spook's Blood'' (''Lure of the Dead'') - 2012
* ''Spook's: Slither's Tale'' (''Slither'') - 2012
* ''Spook's: Alice'' - (''I Am Alice'') - 2013
* ''The Spook's Revenge'' - (''Fury of the Seventh Son'') - 2013
And a number of "side" books that provide further background on the characters, creatures, and settings in-universe:
* ''The Spook's Tale'' (''The Spook's Tale and Other Horrors'') - 2009
* ''Spook's Stories: Witches'' (''A Coven of Witches'') - 2009
* ''The Spook's Bestiary'' - 2010
The series is notable for running mainly on old-school European superstitions about magic, witches, demons and the like--because even though you're likely to find the books in the children's section of the bookstore, you don't want to read these to your kid at bedtime.
And, certainly, they are not to be read after dark. [[RunningGag Especially page 47!]]
The first novel, ''The Spook's Apprentice'', will be adapted into a movie called ''Seventh Son'', starring Creator/JeffBridges, [[TheChroniclesOfNarnia Ben Barnes]], Creator/JulianneMoore, Alicia Vikander, [[ManOfSteel Antje Traue]], Creator/DjimonHounsou and [[Series/GameOfThrones Kit Harington]].
----
!! This book series provides examples of:
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: Tom's mother!]]
* ActionGirl: You don't mess with Grimalkin. The clans' s warriors are pretty frightening in general, just like the witches who stay in the Combe.
** Thorne as well, and Alice to a lesser degree.
* AllWitchesHaveCats: Surprisingly averted. While cats are occasionally mentioned as possible familiars, we've yet to see a witch who has one.
* AndIMustScream: The Spook buries witches to keep them from causing trouble. This is usually done because their spirits stick to the bones, but even live witches meet this fate. Then again, they get buried for a reason.
** [[spoiler: Alices' torture in the Fiends' domain...]]
* AnimalEyeSpy: 'Familiar' magic seems to be this.
* AntiAntiChrist: Alice.
** According to the thing itself, any pure human male child of the devil will grow to be one of his most terrible adversaries, possibly on par with Tom.
* ArbitraryScepticism: Lampshaded; the man in charge of Pendle, while otherwise a good man, is a FlatEarthAtheist who doesn't believe in witches. Tom is absolutely amazed to hear that someone could possibly believe witches don't exist while being in charge of the place ''with the biggest population of witches in the whole country''.
* ArmiesAreEvil: Among kidnappings, attacks and general destruction, armies are really unpopular in the series.
* BadassCape
* BadassGrandpa: John Gregory. He starts weakening in the last books, but he remains overall quite dangerous.
* BackFromTheDead: All witches can rise from the dead as mostly conscious zombie-like creatures, unless they're properly bound or if their heart is taken out.
* BattleCouple: Tom and Alice.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: It's safe to say that many readers have stopped bothering to keep track of how many grand prophecies people make in these books.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: It starts off as this but eventually falls to BlackAndGreyMorality as Tom has to make larger and larger compromises with the dark to the point of [[spoiler:selling his soul to The Fiend]].
** The Black/Grey becomes only stronger over time and by the end of book 7, the Spook has [[spoiler: not only TOLD Alice to use a mirror, he basically recruited Grimalkin to help destroy the Fiend.]]
* BloodMagic: One of the various types of powers witches can draw on. It's Mother Malkin's signature method.
* BoyMeetsGhoul: Tom and Alice
** Subverted because [[spoiler: They ''both'' have a nonhuman parent]].
* BurnTheWitch: One of two surefire ways to permanently destroy a witch. Unfortunately, it tends to happen to good and falsely accused witches most of the time.
** [[spoiler: Even almost happens to the Spook.]]
* CannotCrossRunningWater
* CaptainObvious: Tom Ward is also prone to this, but in the 8th book we see that even {{Satan}} himself does this:
-->"''She is trapped in the dark for eternal torment. Eternal! That means it will go on'' [[CaptainObvious forever!]]"
* TheCatCameBack: The Spook repeatedly tries to send Alice away to limit her involvement with Tom, yet they never stay separated for long.
* ChainedToARock: Tom's mother was chained to a rock with silver chains when his father first saw her. After he rescued her they got married.
* ChessWithDeath: Tom vs. the Fiend.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Alice. It would put a damper on the fun if she had to ask her mom every time she wanted to run off with Tom.
* CrapsackWorld: The county, post-Fiend.
** Even normally, it's pretty terrible, with the poverty disease, high rate of violent crime, witches, and constant threat of death at the hands of various monsters.
* CuteWitch: Alice Deane
* DarkSecret: Mam had a pretty big one.
* DealWithTheDevil: If you've gotten that far in the series, this doesn't need explaining. It's pretty hard to miss.
* DepartmentofRedundancyDepartment: From book eight we get [[spoiler: Fiend:[Alice] is trapped in the dark for eternal torment. Eternal! That means it will go on forever!]]
* DetectEvil: The chill spooks get whenever a Denizen of the Dark is near.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: From A Coven of Witches: Did [[spoiler: Grimalkin]] just stab [[spoiler:the Fiend]] in the arse?
* EldritchAbomination: Some forms of the Fiend, the Ordeen, the Bane, and many other creatures met by Tom Ward and John Gregory.
* EnemyMine:[[spoiler: Gimalkin is apparently this by the end of book seven.]]
* EmpathicWeapon: Apparently, the Destiny Blade likes Tom.
* EyeScream: Grimalkin does this to [[spoiler: the Fiend.]]
* FakingTheDead: Alice, [[spoiler: after being rolled.]]
* FedToPigs: [[spoiler:Mother Malkin shouldn't have attempted to flee through the pigpen while she was shrunk and the pigs were agitated...]]
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:The Spook's last apprentice, Billy, dies of blood loss when his hand is trapped underground with a malicious boggart. And later, Bony Lizzie removes the thumbs from his corpse.]] Additionally, the witches remove the thumb bones of enemies they kill to use as a source of power.
* ForgedByTheGods: Three legendary swords mentioned in book eight.
* FreudianTrio: Alice (Id), Tom (Ego), the Spook (Superego).
* FriendlyEnemy: In book six, [[spoiler:many witches, among them Grimalkin and Mab, put aside their differences and work with the spook-friendly troupe to stop the Ordeen]].
* GypsyCurse: The Pendle clans curse the Spook.
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Tom and Grimalkin both undergo this after learning that the one person they love most has been killed.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Tom's mother and Bill Arkwright die fighting the Ordeen and her forces.]]
** [[spoiler:Thorne as well. Though quite painfully it may have been a SenselessSacrifice, as we never learn if her actions helped Grimalkin at all.]]
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Grimalkin and Thorne are convinced that the kindly healer Agnes Sowerbutts has been killed by agents of the Fiend. They learn that she is alive but in captivity, but she is tortured to death soon after and her body is unceremoniously left on the ground.]]
* HotWitch: Mab Mouldheel.
* HumanoidAbomination: Abhumans are the deformed, monstrous children of the Fiend and one of his thousands of witch brides. They usually resemble normal people from a distance, but have a notable deformity (ranging from small tusks to full lycanthropy) and are always evil.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Or rather, I Am Not Right-Handed. A tactic used by the spooks fits this, where they carry their staffs with their right hand and quickly toss it to their left to deliver CriticalHit.
* LanguageOfMagic: The ''Old Tongue'' seems to be this, in a lost language version.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: Thorne
* LadyOfWar: Grimalkin.
* MagicalSeventhSon: Being the seventh son of a seventh son is literally a job requirement to be a spook.
* MedievalStasis: Kind of. The County is quite backward and in some isolated places castles are still very important for warfare. Only once is any sort of gun fired in the series, and soldiers (presumably from London) are the only people shown to have muskets.
* MysteriousMist: A lot of it.
* NamedWeapon: The Destiny Blade. Counts as a MeaningfulName, too.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: How many times has Tom accidentally caused the MonsterOfTheWeek (or book, rather) to end up being STRONGER as a result of not following instructions?
* NothingIsScarier: The most terrifying parts of the series, including one scene early in the first book, use this trope to great extent.
* OhCrap: You really shouldn't have given Mother Malkin those cakes, Tom.
* OnlyTheWorthyMayPass: Only true heroes may enter a sidhe.
* PunchClockVillain: Alice. While she is a witch, she does it only because she was born into that life. [[spoiler:And she's also a victim of the ploy to get Mother Malkin's strength back.]]
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Morgan.
* ReligionIsMagic: Inverted; faith won't help you at all against the dark. In fact, priests who overestimate their holy powers tend to get in trouble when they try to do a Spook's job. On the other hand, it's specified in Book Six that some religious elements, such as the monks' songs, ''have'' some actual power (in this case, restraining the Ordin)
* ScrewDestiny: The Spook claims he makes his own path. For now.
* SelkiesAndWereseals: In the fifth book, the hero is forced to separate a beautiful selkie from her aging husband. In the series, selkies age very slowly, and are considered bad luck or are taught to be prostitutes.
* SkeletonKey: Tom and Mr. Gregory have skeleton keys provided by Gregory's brother, a locksmith.
* SupernaturalSensitivity: Horn has this, in that he can detect darkness in people.
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: What spooks regularly combat.
* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler:[[{{Satan}} The Fiend]] is constantly trying this on Tom because it means he'll rule for eternity.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The County. [[spoiler: Although WordOfGod says it's based upon Lancashire in England.]]
** It's actually quite obvious to those who live there. Pendle, and Roughlee are real towns, Heysham is a real viallage and Preisttown is certainly supposed to be Preston, the small city which is the most populous town in the county even today. Caster is Lancaster the capital. The Wardstone, mentioned in the books' preface, is an actual hill called Wardstone.
* WhoYouGonnaCall: Spooks fit this to a tee.
* WickedWitch: Mother Malkin, UpToEleven. Bony Lizzie is more of a VainSorceress in terms of appearance.
* WidowWitch: Poor lonely Agnes Sowerbutts.
* WillfullyWeak: From book eight: [[spoiler: [about using serious dark magic] '''Alice:''' I've always had more power than I've shown to you, Tom.]]
* YouCantFightFate [[spoiler: Averted by the Spook in the final book. Though cursed to die alone underground, he changes his fate by dying in battle against the Fiend's army.]]
----
to:
''The Last Apprentice''--or, alternately, ''The Spook's Apprentice'' or ''The Wardstone Chronicles'', [[MarketBasedTitle depending on where you live]]--is a series of dark YA fantasy books by Joseph Delaney.
The series chronicles the events during the training of Thomas J. Ward under the tutelage of John Gregory, the County's local Spook, whose job is to protect the locals from the dark. And what is the dark? Every horrible, evil, going-bump-in-the-night thing you can imagine, from boggarts to witches and everything in between.
The series' books include:
* ''The Spook's Apprentice'' (''Revenge of the Witch'' in the United States) - 2004
* ''The Spook's Curse'' (''Curse of the Bane'') - 2005
* ''The Spook's Secret'' (''Night of the Soul Stealer'') - 2006
* ''The Spook's Battle'' (''Attack of the Fiend'') - 2007
* ''The Spook's Mistake'' (''Wrath of the Bloodeye'') - 2008
* ''The Spook's Sacrifice'' (''Clash of the Demons'') - 2009
* ''The Spook's Nightmare'' (''Rise of the Huntress'') - 2010
* ''The Spook's Destiny'' (''Rage of the Fallen'') - 2011
* ''Spook's: I Am Grimalkin'' (''Grimalkin: The Witch Assassin'') - 2011
* ''The Spook's Blood'' (''Lure of the Dead'') - 2012
* ''Spook's: Slither's Tale'' (''Slither'') - 2012
* ''Spook's: Alice'' - (''I Am Alice'') - 2013
* ''The Spook's Revenge'' - (''Fury of the Seventh Son'') - 2013
And a number of "side" books that provide further background on the characters, creatures, and settings in-universe:
* ''The Spook's Tale'' (''The Spook's Tale and Other Horrors'') - 2009
* ''Spook's Stories: Witches'' (''A Coven of Witches'') - 2009
* ''The Spook's Bestiary'' - 2010
The series is notable for running mainly on old-school European superstitions about magic, witches, demons and the like--because even though you're likely to find the books in the children's section of the bookstore, you don't want to read these to your kid at bedtime.
And, certainly, they are not to be read after dark. [[RunningGag Especially page 47!]]
The first novel, ''The Spook's Apprentice'', will be adapted into a movie called ''Seventh Son'', starring Creator/JeffBridges, [[TheChroniclesOfNarnia Ben Barnes]], Creator/JulianneMoore, Alicia Vikander, [[ManOfSteel Antje Traue]], Creator/DjimonHounsou and [[Series/GameOfThrones Kit Harington]].
----
!! This book series provides examples of:
* AGodAmI: [[spoiler: Tom's mother!]]
* ActionGirl: You don't mess with Grimalkin. The clans' s warriors are pretty frightening in general, just like the witches who stay in the Combe.
** Thorne as well, and Alice to a lesser degree.
* AllWitchesHaveCats: Surprisingly averted. While cats are occasionally mentioned as possible familiars, we've yet to see a witch who has one.
* AndIMustScream: The Spook buries witches to keep them from causing trouble. This is usually done because their spirits stick to the bones, but even live witches meet this fate. Then again, they get buried for a reason.
** [[spoiler: Alices' torture in the Fiends' domain...]]
* AnimalEyeSpy: 'Familiar' magic seems to be this.
* AntiAntiChrist: Alice.
** According to the thing itself, any pure human male child of the devil will grow to be one of his most terrible adversaries, possibly on par with Tom.
* ArbitraryScepticism: Lampshaded; the man in charge of Pendle, while otherwise a good man, is a FlatEarthAtheist who doesn't believe in witches. Tom is absolutely amazed to hear that someone could possibly believe witches don't exist while being in charge of the place ''with the biggest population of witches in the whole country''.
* ArmiesAreEvil: Among kidnappings, attacks and general destruction, armies are really unpopular in the series.
* BadassCape
* BadassGrandpa: John Gregory. He starts weakening in the last books, but he remains overall quite dangerous.
* BackFromTheDead: All witches can rise from the dead as mostly conscious zombie-like creatures, unless they're properly bound or if their heart is taken out.
* BattleCouple: Tom and Alice.
* BecauseDestinySaysSo: It's safe to say that many readers have stopped bothering to keep track of how many grand prophecies people make in these books.
* BlackAndWhiteMorality: It starts off as this but eventually falls to BlackAndGreyMorality as Tom has to make larger and larger compromises with the dark to the point of [[spoiler:selling his soul to The Fiend]].
** The Black/Grey becomes only stronger over time and by the end of book 7, the Spook has [[spoiler: not only TOLD Alice to use a mirror, he basically recruited Grimalkin to help destroy the Fiend.]]
* BloodMagic: One of the various types of powers witches can draw on. It's Mother Malkin's signature method.
* BoyMeetsGhoul: Tom and Alice
** Subverted because [[spoiler: They ''both'' have a nonhuman parent]].
* BurnTheWitch: One of two surefire ways to permanently destroy a witch. Unfortunately, it tends to happen to good and falsely accused witches most of the time.
** [[spoiler: Even almost happens to the Spook.]]
* CannotCrossRunningWater
* CaptainObvious: Tom Ward is also prone to this, but in the 8th book we see that even {{Satan}} himself does this:
-->"''She is trapped in the dark for eternal torment. Eternal! That means it will go on'' [[CaptainObvious forever!]]"
* TheCatCameBack: The Spook repeatedly tries to send Alice away to limit her involvement with Tom, yet they never stay separated for long.
* ChainedToARock: Tom's mother was chained to a rock with silver chains when his father first saw her. After he rescued her they got married.
* ChessWithDeath: Tom vs. the Fiend.
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Alice. It would put a damper on the fun if she had to ask her mom every time she wanted to run off with Tom.
* CrapsackWorld: The county, post-Fiend.
** Even normally, it's pretty terrible, with the poverty disease, high rate of violent crime, witches, and constant threat of death at the hands of various monsters.
* CuteWitch: Alice Deane
* DarkSecret: Mam had a pretty big one.
* DealWithTheDevil: If you've gotten that far in the series, this doesn't need explaining. It's pretty hard to miss.
* DepartmentofRedundancyDepartment: From book eight we get [[spoiler: Fiend:[Alice] is trapped in the dark for eternal torment. Eternal! That means it will go on forever!]]
* DetectEvil: The chill spooks get whenever a Denizen of the Dark is near.
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: From A Coven of Witches: Did [[spoiler: Grimalkin]] just stab [[spoiler:the Fiend]] in the arse?
* EldritchAbomination: Some forms of the Fiend, the Ordeen, the Bane, and many other creatures met by Tom Ward and John Gregory.
* EnemyMine:[[spoiler: Gimalkin is apparently this by the end of book seven.]]
* EmpathicWeapon: Apparently, the Destiny Blade likes Tom.
* EyeScream: Grimalkin does this to [[spoiler: the Fiend.]]
* FakingTheDead: Alice, [[spoiler: after being rolled.]]
* FedToPigs: [[spoiler:Mother Malkin shouldn't have attempted to flee through the pigpen while she was shrunk and the pigs were agitated...]]
* {{Fingore}}: [[spoiler:The Spook's last apprentice, Billy, dies of blood loss when his hand is trapped underground with a malicious boggart. And later, Bony Lizzie removes the thumbs from his corpse.]] Additionally, the witches remove the thumb bones of enemies they kill to use as a source of power.
* ForgedByTheGods: Three legendary swords mentioned in book eight.
* FreudianTrio: Alice (Id), Tom (Ego), the Spook (Superego).
* FriendlyEnemy: In book six, [[spoiler:many witches, among them Grimalkin and Mab, put aside their differences and work with the spook-friendly troupe to stop the Ordeen]].
* GypsyCurse: The Pendle clans curse the Spook.
* HeroicBSOD: [[spoiler: Tom and Grimalkin both undergo this after learning that the one person they love most has been killed.]]
* HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:Tom's mother and Bill Arkwright die fighting the Ordeen and her forces.]]
** [[spoiler:Thorne as well. Though quite painfully it may have been a SenselessSacrifice, as we never learn if her actions helped Grimalkin at all.]]
* HopeSpot: [[spoiler:Grimalkin and Thorne are convinced that the kindly healer Agnes Sowerbutts has been killed by agents of the Fiend. They learn that she is alive but in captivity, but she is tortured to death soon after and her body is unceremoniously left on the ground.]]
* HotWitch: Mab Mouldheel.
* HumanoidAbomination: Abhumans are the deformed, monstrous children of the Fiend and one of his thousands of witch brides. They usually resemble normal people from a distance, but have a notable deformity (ranging from small tusks to full lycanthropy) and are always evil.
* IAmNotLeftHanded: Or rather, I Am Not Right-Handed. A tactic used by the spooks fits this, where they carry their staffs with their right hand and quickly toss it to their left to deliver CriticalHit.
* LanguageOfMagic: The ''Old Tongue'' seems to be this, in a lost language version.
* LadyOfBlackMagic: Thorne
* LadyOfWar: Grimalkin.
* MagicalSeventhSon: Being the seventh son of a seventh son is literally a job requirement to be a spook.
* MedievalStasis: Kind of. The County is quite backward and in some isolated places castles are still very important for warfare. Only once is any sort of gun fired in the series, and soldiers (presumably from London) are the only people shown to have muskets.
* MysteriousMist: A lot of it.
* NamedWeapon: The Destiny Blade. Counts as a MeaningfulName, too.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: How many times has Tom accidentally caused the MonsterOfTheWeek (or book, rather) to end up being STRONGER as a result of not following instructions?
* NothingIsScarier: The most terrifying parts of the series, including one scene early in the first book, use this trope to great extent.
* OhCrap: You really shouldn't have given Mother Malkin those cakes, Tom.
* OnlyTheWorthyMayPass: Only true heroes may enter a sidhe.
* PunchClockVillain: Alice. While she is a witch, she does it only because she was born into that life. [[spoiler:And she's also a victim of the ploy to get Mother Malkin's strength back.]]
* APupilOfMineUntilHeTurnedToEvil: Morgan.
* ReligionIsMagic: Inverted; faith won't help you at all against the dark. In fact, priests who overestimate their holy powers tend to get in trouble when they try to do a Spook's job. On the other hand, it's specified in Book Six that some religious elements, such as the monks' songs, ''have'' some actual power (in this case, restraining the Ordin)
* ScrewDestiny: The Spook claims he makes his own path. For now.
* SelkiesAndWereseals: In the fifth book, the hero is forced to separate a beautiful selkie from her aging husband. In the series, selkies age very slowly, and are considered bad luck or are taught to be prostitutes.
* SkeletonKey: Tom and Mr. Gregory have skeleton keys provided by Gregory's brother, a locksmith.
* SupernaturalSensitivity: Horn has this, in that he can detect darkness in people.
* ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight: What spooks regularly combat.
* WeCanRuleTogether: [[spoiler:[[{{Satan}} The Fiend]] is constantly trying this on Tom because it means he'll rule for eternity.]]
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield: The County. [[spoiler: Although WordOfGod says it's based upon Lancashire in England.]]
** It's actually quite obvious to those who live there. Pendle, and Roughlee are real towns, Heysham is a real viallage and Preisttown is certainly supposed to be Preston, the small city which is the most populous town in the county even today. Caster is Lancaster the capital. The Wardstone, mentioned in the books' preface, is an actual hill called Wardstone.
* WhoYouGonnaCall: Spooks fit this to a tee.
* WickedWitch: Mother Malkin, UpToEleven. Bony Lizzie is more of a VainSorceress in terms of appearance.
* WidowWitch: Poor lonely Agnes Sowerbutts.
* WillfullyWeak: From book eight: [[spoiler: [about using serious dark magic] '''Alice:''' I've always had more power than I've shown to you, Tom.]]
* YouCantFightFate [[spoiler: Averted by the Spook in the final book. Though cursed to die alone underground, he changes his fate by dying in battle against the Fiend's army.]]
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