The Phone Goes Dead by Anthony Horowitz

9/10

In Hyde Park, Linda James makes a phone call that will change her life forever. She’s in a lightning storm and under a tree as she has forgot to bring her umbrella. As we all know the two things she has done are pretty bad and as a result, she gets a lightning bolt through her that kills her and also affects the mobile phone she is holding.

While the local police investigate Linda's dead body, a kid rides onto the crime scene and steals the phone, taking it to a pawn brokers. This is where the fun starts as a doting father buys the phone for his son so he can keep in touch with him. It only needs a new sim card and it is ready to be used.

What sounds like a good idea becomes a bad one once David starts using it. Other than the kids at school teasing him when his mum phones, he gets anonymous calls from people he doesn't even know - people who are dead! Yes, he gets folk from beyond the grave contacting him asking him to pass messages onto their nearest and dearest.

The first call he gets is from someone wanting him to tell his wife that the ring is under the fridge. Once he realizes that there are dead people contacting him, he freaks out and puts the phone away where no one can annoy him, but he soon finds out he can't escape his fate that easily. David isn't a bad kid, so he doesn't really deserve what happens to him at the end, but it does make for a very intense story.

The Phone Goes Dead is part of the Anthony Horowitz graphic horror series illustrated by Dan Boultwood with his own unique style and action-packed sequences and shocking scenes. It is a creepy short story that is typical of Horowitz.