book detective hunt for you [SLEUTHING COMPLETED]

lightcrystal · Post by **lightcrystal** » May 14th, 2024, 8:43 pm

I have tried every imaginable Google search and book search to find this. I have posted in multiple forums going back many years.

TLDR:
I read the book in high school in 1987. Genre was YA horror. It was set in Britain. The front cover had a boy climbing out of a pit. [No, before you suggest about 5 possible books called The Pit etc I have AFAIK checked them all]

Plot: two young British guys go around England on a motorbike. They stop at a beach and stumble on a terrorist camp. The terrorists knock them out. The guys wake up underground and strapped to bombs. They are told "you are going to die anyway so here's what's going on. We are the IRA and we have bombs strapped to British submarines and they will explode in about a week's time."

At this point I returned the book to the school library. I gather that the rest of it was them escaping and the finale of climbing back to the surface through a pit. This was well written. I enjoyed it.

I have looked through 1987 and that time period young adult horror books. I can't find this. I've forgotten the title [obviously].

This is where AI in the future might be useful. I have been looking for since for about the last 5 years.

Peter Why · Post by **Peter Why** » May 14th, 2024, 10:41 pm

You might put a query on the Book Sleuth site: https://community.abebooks.com/s/book-sleuth

Peter

Post by **Kitty** » May 15th, 2024, 1:18 am

I asked a friend of mine from that region and he came up with Annerton Pit, by Peter Dickinson, from 1977. Maybe that's what you meant. The boy on the cover indeed looks creepy, with whitish eyes. Not sure he was climbing out of a pit, more like crawling along a rugged path.

Here is the book cover, maybe it will ring a bell:
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/annertonpit.zip

My friend has the book, in case you are interested, I can send the pdf by PM if you wish.

Sonia

lightcrystal · Post by **lightcrystal** » May 15th, 2024, 5:53 am

Kitty wrote: ↑May 15th, 2024, 1:18 am I asked a friend of mine from that region and he came up with Annerton Pit, by Peter Dickinson, from 1977. Maybe that's what you meant. The boy on the cover indeed looks creepy, with whitish eyes. Not sure he was climbing out of a pit, more like crawling along a rugged path.

Here is the book cover, maybe it will ring a bell:
https://librivox.org/uploads/kitty/annertonpit.zip

My friend has the book, in case you are interested, I can send the pdf by PM if you wish.

Sonia

That is it! Thank you very much! I just bought it off Google books as an ebook.

Post by **Kitty** » May 15th, 2024, 6:01 am

lightcrystal wrote: ↑May 15th, 2024, 5:53 amThat is it! Thank you very much! I just bought it off Google books as an ebook.

oh wow great !!! He will be thrilled that he could be of help.

Well let me know if it was still as hooking as you remembered it

I find that perceptions from childhood differ a lot when grown-up.

Sonia

lightcrystal · Post by **lightcrystal** » May 15th, 2024, 1:13 pm

A lot better. I can appreciate it more; the terrorist group was actually an environmental group. From 1977 to 2024 nothing changes...I better not get political.
In 1987 it was put in a special section on the school library shelves as the "most frightening book" to borrow.

Post by **Kitty** » May 16th, 2024, 3:39 am

lightcrystal wrote: ↑May 15th, 2024, 1:13 pmIn 1987 it was put in a special section on the school library shelves as the "most frightening book" to borrow.

I browsed a bit through it, seems there is a monster in the cave maybe...you didn't read far enough to get to the frightening bits back in school

btw I thought starting a bigger help thread for such questions, to pool them all in one thread instead of starting new ones with each title, might be a good idea. Let's see if it takes a dynamic, like the language help thread: viewtopic.php?t=102774

Sonia

lightcrystal · Post by **lightcrystal** » May 18th, 2024, 5:52 pm

Interestingly when I mentioned the book title to my relatives they told me that there was a real life coal pit in England called Annersley [spelling?] . Maybe Annerton was based on that.

Post by **Kitty** » May 19th, 2024, 2:30 am

lightcrystal wrote: ↑May 18th, 2024, 5:52 pm Interestingly when I mentioned the book title to my relatives they told me that there was a real life coal pit in England called Annersley [spelling?] . Maybe Annerton was based on that.

There is Annesley, maybe. My friend thinks it might be based in his area as Radio Newcastle was mentioned, so yes it was probably in the North of England. Reputedly haunted pits probably anund in that area.

Sonia