Mines of the Minotaur by Julia Golding

Mines of the Minotaur by Julia Golding

The clock continued to tick calmly in the hall, out of step with the stormy sea of panic surging inside Connie. She could make no sense of this. How had she ended up on the beach? She felt a hum in her bones as if she had been meeting with some powerful creature. But what beast or being had the power to draw her out of her house without her knowing about it? And what had happened when they were together?

Thirteen-year-old Connie Lionheart is the only Universal Companion, able to communicate with all the mythical creatures hidden in our world. She is the most important member of a secret society sworn to protect the bonds between humans and creatures. But her power brings great responsibility and great danger.

Julia Golding is a children's and young adult author who has won numerous awards. She has authored almost fifty books in genres ranging from historical adventure to fantasy. She was a former British diplomat and an Oxfam policy adviser. She earned a doctorate in English literature from Oxford in between raising three children. 'The Diamond of Drury Lane,' her first novel, won the Waterstones Children's Book Award and the Nestle Children's Book Prize in 2006. 'Secret of the Sirens' got the Green Earth Book Award's honor book medal in the United States.