It is with great pleasure that I am taking part in the blog tour for Monster Max: This Time it’s Sirius by Robin Bennett and illustrated by Tom Tinn-Disbury.

Max can turn into a huge monster just by BURPING, and back again when he SNEEZES. Now Max and his best friend Peregrine realise that a dangerous pack of werewolves from Max’s home country of Krit are closing in on him and his family. But Max hasn’t told anyone about Sirius the tiny werewolf cub he found, smuggled home, and decided to keep but they soon realise… Werewolf cubs are not just for Halloween.

When Robin grew up he thought he wanted to be a cavalry officer until everyone else realised that putting him in charge of a tank was a very bad idea. He then became an assistant gravedigger in London. This is a photo of Robin with his cat Gnasher.

After gravedigging, Robin had a career frantically starting businesses (everything from dog-sitting to cigars, tuition to translation)… until finally settling down to write improbable stories to keep his children from killing each other on long car journeys. Robin claims he plays most sports. Poorly.

My spot on the blog tour will take the form of an extract from the prologue of Monster Max: This Time it’s Sirius.

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High up in the mountains, the tiny country of Krit was even more hidden than usual.

For it was a dark and stormy night.

Fanghorn, leader of the Red Eye wolves, and fearsome enemy of Monster Max, prowled the chilly corridors of his grim castle, getting crosser by the minute. Fanghorn was a wolf who didn’t like people leaving Krit, and that meant Max’s mum (and Max). And he also didn’t like people who made him look stupid and that also meant Max’s mum (and Max).

‘They think they’re free, running about doing good in this England place!’ he snarled. ‘But no- one leaves Krit without my permission. I want them here … I want to punish them!’!’

But how to capture them, when all his efforts had failed so far?

I must have werewolves for this job, he thought. Not just any old ones; I need the strongest and the most loyal.

He burst out onto the castle battlements just as the moon appeared from behind a black cloud, raised his huge jaws into the night, and he howled into the frozen air, ‘Bring me the leader of the Varkas pack! Wooooo!’

Almost immediately, he heard answering howls from the ice regions of Krit and it didn’t take long for the sound of running feet to reach his wolfish ears.

Fanghorn leapt from the battlements to greet his guest in the castle courtyard.

‘Raise the gate!’ he snarled at his guards.

But before they got their paws on the lifting lever, there was a terrible splintering noise and the gate exploded into pieces. A wolf burst into the courtyard and came to a screeching stop a whisker away from Fanghorn’s nose.

The Varkas pack leader was even bigger than Fanghorn – like the werewolf equivalent of a cage fighter but with extra bits, like teeth and claws. Fanghorn had to stop himself from gulping.

‘Yes, sir!’ the Varkas wolf barked. (He probably would have saluted if he’d had hands, not four paws.) ‘At your service!’

‘YES!’ said Fanghorn, thinking: these guys are great, they’ll always follow orders. ‘I have a job for you and for twenty of your best fighters.’

‘Sir!’

‘You must go to England, to a place called Oxford, and find a Grey Eyed wolf who escaped from Krit, who now calls herself Sally Forbes, and her son, Max. Bring them to me!’ Fanghorn turned to go.

‘Sir?’

‘Yes? What is it?’ He turned back to the Varkas wolf impatiently.

‘Well, um…’ The huge wolf looked embarrassed. ‘Did you want us to go, like, right away?’

‘Of course, like right away. Otherwise, I would have waited until morning instead of doing this dramatic midnight howling… Anyway, why?’

‘It’s just that we’ve just had a cub, lovely little fella, and my wife and I kind of run the pack together – like a family thing, you know – and, what I mean to say, your Royal Highness, is that it gives us a bit of a childcare issue … um…’ He stopped as Fanghorn glared at him in furious silence.

‘Well, take the cub along – everyone travels with kids these days. You’ll probably get a discount.’

‘Sir!’ The Varkas pack leader looked relieved. ‘Thank you, sir! So, twenty vicious wolves wot know no mercy and are extremely terrifying, against one kid and his mum?’

‘Yes… Anything wrong with that?’

‘Er, no, sir.’ The huge wolf looked a bit unsure but wasn’t going to push his luck with Fanghorn’s terrible temper. ‘Consider thems got!’

The Varkas wolf turned and leapt.

‘Wait, hold on … argh! RAISE THE GATE!’ Fanghorn barked at the guards, who had only just finished sticking the broken pieces together with rope and glue. He was too late. There was an awful crashing noise like a small meteorite ploughing through a forest as the Varkas leader smashed the gate all over again.

‘Oh, for heaven’s sake, don’t these Varkas ever use doors like normal werewolves?’ Fanghorn growled. He watched the warrior disappear into the night and, instead of dwelling on his broken gate, he thought about what he would do when he finally had his captives in Krit.

Fanghorn slowly grinned with several dozen very large fangs. He couldn’t wait to get his teeth into them.

Extract from the Prologue of Monster Max: This Time it’s Sirius by Robin Bennett.

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You can follow Robin Bennet on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter): @writer_robin and on Instagram @robinbennettauthor.

You can purchase a copy of Monster Max: This Time it’s Sirius by Robin Bennett and Tom Tinn-Disbury from the following links:

Firefly Press Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com uk.bookshop.org

I would like to thank Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to take part in this blog tour. Thank you.

To follow the rest of the tour please check out the schedule below: