P-K (Photokinesis)

Publishing details:

Published in the UK in 1986, but is now out of print. Hardback only. ISBN 0-727-81364-1, Severn House Publishers.

Synopsis:

Fifteen-year-old schoolboy Greg White is knocked down by a hit-and-run driver on his way to school. When he emerges from a coma, he finds he has psychokinetic abilities. The British Government learn of this, and they team him up with several other children who have special powers, and fly him to Gibraltar to help find a nuclear bomb smuggled in by the Basque terrorist organisation ETA......

Commentary:

Not a particularly auspicious end to Walters' career, 'P-K' plods along at a fairly pedestrian pace. Very much written for children, it is reminiscent of 'The Tomorrow People' TV series, although whereas in that the Government were always a threat to be hidden from, in 'P-K' the British Government can do no wrong.

It's perhaps also rather a strange idea for a children's novel to pit schoolkids against a real terrorist organisation (ETA) particularly as they seem woefully ill-equipped. In an implausible scene, in order to make a copy of the terrorists' bomb instruction manual, they have to use a photocopier at the local library! The ending of the book suggests that the children will have further adventures, but now we will never know what those would have been.....

Incidentally there are telepathic twin girls in this story - but they're named Maureen and Brenda, not Gill and Gail!

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