Granny

Twelve-year-old Joe Warden isn't happy. Sure, he's rich, but his parents don't care about him. His grandmother should make everything better, except that Joe's granny is a nightmare. She's not just physically repulsive, she's horribly mean. Everyone thinks she's just a dotty old woman, but Joe knows the truth. He's seen behind her mask and glimpsed the wicked glimmer in her eyes—she is pure evil. And now she's out to get Joe, unless he can stop her and her band of nasty grannies first.

HEATHROW AIRPORT

The storm broke early in the evening and by seven o’clock it looked as if Heathrow might have to shut down. Runway One had disappeared in the rain. Runway Two was a canal. Half the planes had been delayed and the other half were circling hopelessly above the clouds, waiting their turn to land. The wind had blown an Air France DC10 all the way to Luton while, in a Jumbo Jet from Tokyo, seventy-nine Japanese passengers had all thrown up at the same time. It was a night no one would forget.

The green Mercedes reached the airport at exactly half past seven, skidding around a corner and spraying water over two traffic cops, a porter, and a visitor from Norway. Swerving across the road, it missed a taxi by inches and rocketed into the parking garage of Terminal Three. The electric side window slid down and a hand with a signet ring and the initials G W entwined in gold reached out to pluck a parking ticket from the machine. Then the car jumped forward again, shot up three ramps with the tires screaming, and crashed into a wall. Ten thousand dollars’ worth of metal and paintwork crumpled in on itself. The engine died. Steam hissed from beneath the bent and broken hood.