Breslin won the annual Carnegie Medal in 1994[2] from the Library Association, recognising the year's best children's book by a British subject.

She attended a local meeting of the British Dyslexia Association and recognised the pain and frustration of children, their families, and educators.

Solomon has a very hard time with life as his mother left when he was young, his father is an alcoholic and everyone picks on him including a bullying teacher called Mr Watkins also known as Warrior Watkins Solomon hears that bodies buried in a graveyard died of smallpox and if disturbed could spread the infection again, but the real danger is of a supernatural nature.

Driven by his father's behaviour to spend the night in the graveyard, he witnesses one of the workmen being swallowed up by the ground after unearthing a mysterious chest marked with the word "Malefice".

With the encouragement of Ms Talmur, one of the teachers from school who has helped him throughout the book but leaves to get a promotion at the end, he begins to change his life, although he knows it will be an uphill struggle.