Christopher Edge unveils the Fear Files, his new horror adventure series
About Author
Christopher Edge opens up the Fear Files to give readers a glimpse of the first case - a terrifying game of Hide and Seek.
An award-winning children's author, Christopher's books have been translated into more than 20 languages. His novels include The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day, which won the STEAM Children's Book Prize, and Escape Room, the #1 Amazon bestseller. He is described by The Times as "the coolest science teacher you probably never had".
Christopher grew up in Manchester, but now lives in Gloucestershire, close to his local library.
Find out more via his website christopheredge.co.uk. Follow on X @edgechristopher / Instagram @christopheredge.
Interview
October 2025
Peak inside the Fear Files with author Christopher Edge
Find out what bestselling author Christopher Edge is planning for his new horror series, Fear Files, which begins with a terrifying game of Hide and Seek!
In Hide and Seek, Adam and his friend Sol find themselves in a deserted town, where they are inadvertently caught up in a truly creepy version of Hide and Seek. Watch out, the Itter is coming to find you....!
The Fear Files stories are drawn from the Darkive, a top-secret database of the strange and unexplained. With notes, photographs and maps, the reader follows the events recounted by the victim, to discover what really happened. Look out for further Fear Files adventures to come . . .
Read an extract from Hide and Seek
Q&A with Christopher Edge
"I think the childhood game of hide and seek is genuinely the most terrifying game ever invented!"
1. Hi Christopher, thank you for joining us on ReadingZone! You're well known for your science fiction adventures such as Escape Room and The Jamie Drake Equation, so why did you decide to shift into horror with your new Fear Files series?
I love writing so many different genres from adventure to science fiction, thrillers to mysteries, but horror and suspense has always been a genre that I've especially enjoyed since I discovered a collection of ghost stories on my older brother's bookshelf when I was growing up and proceeded to scare myself silly as I read it under the bedcovers late at night!
The twists and turns of a great adventure story or thriller keep a reader turning the pages, and this is similar in horror, although a great horror story adds a frisson of fear, making the reader almost a little scared to turn the page, but they have to in order to find out what happens next!
2. What were your favourite horror books or TV and films at this age, and do you have any 'stand out' horror moments or memories? Have these influences helped spur you to write your own?
As well as the classic horror stories by authors like M. R. James and E. F. Benson, I remember a children's book called Grinny by Nicholas Fisk, which was a mix of sci-fi and horror, that I found really creepy, as well as spooky short stories for children such as 'Nule' by Jan Mark.
In addition to this, I was a child of the 1980s so was incredibly scarred by the public information films of this time which warned children of the dangers of railway lines and reservoirs, including a terrifying film called Lonely Water which has meant I've never stepped foot near a reservoir to this day!
On TV, I was a huge X-Files fan in the 1990s, and I think in the Fear Files, I draw on my emotional memories of ALL these influences to craft stories that draw on the fears of today's younger readers, including both traditional supernatural phenomena such as ghosts, but also reflecting 21st century fears concerning paranormal entities and anomalies.
3. What's the idea behind the Fear Files and what inspired the 'Darkive' collection and the fact-file approach you take to your stories?
With my new series, Fear Files, I want to give young readers immersive page-turning stories that will send shivers down their spine but also provide them with a safe space to explore age-appropriate horror tropes and themes. Ghosts and cursed objects, paranormal entities and weird anomalies.
Each Fear File is a stand-alone story taken from the Darkive, a top-secret database of the strange and unexplained, and is presented alongside evidence in the form of case notes, Wikipedia entries, screenshots, drawings and more. These books are custom-built for young readers, empowering them to face their fears and confront things that initially scare them.
4. What can readers expect in the first book, Hide and Seek? Why did you choose this game to start - and how do you make the game so deeply creepy in your Fear Files?
I think the childhood game of hide and seek is genuinely the most terrifying game ever invented! Terrifying for the hider - are you going to get caught, or worse, forgotten? Terrifying for the seeker - who or what is going to jump out at you when you go looking for them?
In Fear Files: Hide and Seek, Adam and his best friend, Sol, discover an abandoned ghost town and find themselves playing a strange game of hide and seek. But who or what is trying to find them? In the story, I take the classic 'hide and seek' dynamic to show Adam and his new friends' desperate attempts to stay one step ahead of the shadowy figure of the Itter, as they play different variations of the game of hide and seek.
5. Can you tell us about your main character, Adam, and why you have chosen to tell the story from his perspective?
Each of the Fear Files is a first-person account of one person's encounter with the strange and unexplained. Adam is the reader's representative in the story, recounting his experience as it happens to him, and I hope this helps readers to feel immersed in the story.
When the story begins, Adam is having the worst ever camping trip with his best friend Sol, and exploring one morning, they discover an abandoned ghost town, finding their way to its deserted town square. Sol wants to head back straight away, but Adam challenges Sol to a game of hide and seek. As Sol reluctantly hides, Adam decides to play a trick on his friend and this sets the events of the story into action…
6. Is the terrifying 'Itter' - the hide and seek catcher - inspired by any book or film characters? Did you enjoy creating him?
The biggest inspiration behind the Itter is actually the shark from the film Jaws! The reason I say this is because the director of Jaws, Steven Spielberg, famously decided hardly to show the shark in the movie, which had the effect of ramping the tension through the roof.
I took the same approach with the Itter, who Adam and the reader only ever glimpse in shadow form, never directly. As well as counting up to one hundred as he launches each round of the game in the story, the Itter always speaks in a strange sing-song rhyme and I had a lot of fun thinking up his dialogue and making it super-creepy!
7. How do you use the scrapbook-style 'fact file' in Hide and Seek - notes, photographs and sketches of abnormal activities - to bring extra questions for the reader?
Every account in the Darkive is stored with evidence in the form of case notes, audio transcripts, screenshots, drawings and more and this evidence is reproduced in the Fear Files books, helping the reader to question whether the strange experience recounted has a rational explanation or is there something else behind the mystery described.
As well as Adam's story, Fear Files: Hide and Seek presents the reader with post-it notes from the Darkive investigators who are researching this Fear File, commenting on Adam's account and putting forward their own theories about it, but as the shadowy presence of the Itter also starts to make itself known in the Darkive, these post-it notes start to add an extra layer of fear for readers!
8. Can you tell us about the setting, which has a timeless feel to it and continuously surprises the reader?
Adam and his friend Sol discover an abandoned ghost town which goes by the name of Apodidraskinda, which is actually the name of the earliest version of the game of hide and seek that was played in ancient Greece. This is a strange, ever-morphing ghost town, where streets bring you back to where you started from, and from secret passageways to an overgrown sculpture garden, an abandoned funfair to a deserted school house, Adam has to face his fears as the shadowy form of the Itter pursues them through the town.
One inspiration behind the setting came from the village of Portmeirion in Wales, which was the creepy setting of the 1960s TV series The Prisoner, but it was also discovering that there was actually a World Championships of Hide and Seek, and that the last place this was held in was the deserted Italian ghost town of Consonno, that convinced me to set Hide and Seek in a ghost town location.
9. There is a twist at the end - do you plan to leave all your Fear Files with questions to answer? What do you have planned for the series?
Each of the Fear Files is a stand-alone story, recounting one person's experience with the strange and unexplained, so there's always going to be questions left for the reader to ponder. However, you will learn more about the Darkive as the series progresses and keep your eyes peeled for the next Fear File - A Trick of the Light - which will be landing in September 2026, and keen-eyed readers might spot a mention of this in the investigators' case notes for Hide and Seek. All I can tell you is that it's only a ghost story … isn't it?
Creative Challenge: Hide and Seek takes a children's game and twists it into something else - something horrifying. How would you challenge young writers to create their own 'twisted' children's game?
Think about what scares you. Can you give a spooky twist to a classic children's game such as Simon Says or I Spy. Think about how you can make your reader feel like they're playing this game by appealing to the five senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch and taste - to create a creepy scene. Or maybe just take a look around the room you're in now, and decide where you'd hide if the Itter was looking for you! That sounds like the start to a very creepy tale…
School Events: What kind of events are you planning for Fear Files, and how can schools get in touch?
My author events are always very interactive and the one for Fear Files is going to be no exception as I'll be inviting audiences to join me in an interactive Fear Files investigation. I offer in-person and virtual events, and can be contacted via the agency, Authors Aloud, to arrange a visit.
Fear Files: Hide and Seek: A pacy, spine tingling horror adventure
