Stone Cold (Swindells novel)

Stone Cold

1997 hardback edition
Author	Robert Swindells
Language	English
Genre	Young adult novel Horror novel
Publisher	Heinemann
Publication date	1993
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardcover)

Stone Cold is a 1993 young-adult fiction novel by Robert Swindells, which was awarded with the Carnegie Medal. The narrative switches between Link, a newly homeless sixteen-year-old who is getting to grips with his new predicament, and Shelter, an ex-army officer (who recruits homeless people) scorned after being dismissed from his job. Because he lost his job, Shelter gets rid of homeless people on the streets of London by luring them to his home and killing them. It is inevitable that the two meet.

Plot summary

yeahhh man A young homeless boy, known only as Link, recounts on how he became homeless. His father left his family for his secretary. Subsequently, Link's mother got a new boyfriend named Vince. Vince was a largely abusive boyfriend who treated Link cruelly and made Link's sister (who Link was close to), Carole, move out and live with her boyfriend after he tried to do something to her. He once locked him out of his own house after he came home late one night and his mother, who lost her self-esteem after Vince moved in, doesn't stick up for him. What disgusts Link the most is the fact that Vince makes sexual references towards his mother right in front of him. Vince was also physically abusive to him sometimes. Link, disgusted and annoyed by Vince's treatment, eventually walks out on his family, which Vince calls "making yourself homeless." However, he quickly found that he could not be homeless where he lived, due to the close-knit nature of his community. Once a week he would go to Carole's flat for the night, but eventually her boyfriend, Chris, tires of it. At Christmas, his mother and Carole put their money together to buy Link a sleeping bag, this gifts hurts Link, but the sleeping bag does come in handy. After a row with his family on Christmas day, Link decides to leave for London. Carole gives him some money and sees him off with his new sleeping bag.

After arriving in London, Link finds a room, but a fortnight's rent costs him two-thirds of his money (£150). He looks for a job but nobody would employ him because of his appearance (living on the street has made him filthy), intelligence (Link only has 5 GCSE's), and because there were better options for them all. Soon the landlord kicks him out before the fortnight is over and he is again homeless. He eventually found a deep doorway, but left it too long in order to go to the toilet. When he got back to it, a more violent homeless person was there. Link foolishly tried to argue with him, but in the end loses his space, as well as his beloved watch and has to find somewhere else. Now Link cannot get a job since he has no address, and cannot get an address since he has no job. Link is very afraid and alone on the streets, but after a while he meets the streetwise Ginger, who is also homeless. Ginger teaches Link how to survive on the streets of London and points out that Link won't get any benefits because he left his old house on his own accord; he wasn't kicked out or forcefully made homeless.

Meanwhile, a man nicknamed Shelter starts a spree of murders of homeless people in London. Shelter served in the Army for twenty-nine years before recruiting homeless people from the streets and turning them into his own "army." He was discharged on medical grounds, but he claims to be "as fit as a butcher's dog" — when he was actually fired because of being mentally unstable. He acts as if he is still in the army by everything he says and does, and believes the army is hatching a plan to fill up the cities with homeless people so they can undermine the city. He chooses to "clean up" the streets by killing the homeless and hiding them under his floorboards. Shelter plans very meticulously. He starts small and tries not to create a pattern in his killings so he cannot be tracked down. By buying a flat and a cat (because "owning a cat is unthreatening") he manages to lure many of the homeless to their deaths with promises of a warm shower and something to eat. By the time he encounters Link, Shelter has killed seven people.

Link and Ginger first meet Shelter when they ask him for any spare change, but he replies "Change! I'd change you, me lad, if I had you in khaki for 6 weeks!". As they walk away they laugh at a remembered joke, instead Shelter thinks they are laughing at him. They become his targets – named Laughing Boy One (Ginger) and Laughing Boy Two (Link).

As Ginger is going to meet some friends, Shelter persuades Ginger to come to his flat by saying that Link is there lying on the floor after an accident. Once there, Shelter kills Ginger. After some time, Link believes Ginger has gone off with his "real friends" and that he is on his own again. Shortly after this, Link meets Gail, commenting that she is the best-looking "dosser" (homeless person) he has ever seen. Link sees himself as a possible shelter for her, as Ginger was for him and decides to take on the role. He finds himself falling hopelessly in love with her.

Link notices that something is "off" about Gail, but he does not know what. While Gail leaves him to make a phone call to her sister, Shelter invites Link into his flat and tries to kill him. Gail manages to save Link's life by calling the police, who catch Shelter in the act of attempted murder. At the end Gail tells Link that she is actually is Louise Bain, a reporter studying homelessness (to refute the claims made by The Sun that Ginger mentions earlier). Link is furious and believes that they knew about Shelter for ages, but only hoped to be there when he was busted. Gail, shocked by her experiences and her former friend's fury, gives Link a lot of banknotes, which he decides to keep rather than "throwing it in her face." Moreover Link thinks that it is unfair that Shelter gets a roof over his head and three hot meals a day (in prison) and Link gets nothing — living on the streets of London, cold and hungry.

This is a very funny book with many twists..enjoy!

Characters

Link

Link is the main character of the novel. He was born on March 20, 1977 and is 16 years old. His mother's boyfriend, Vince, who is a drunkard, kicked him out of his house after his father divorced. Link is not his real name, but it is what he says when anyone asks. He got his name from a sign which read "Thames link" upon arriving in London from Bradford. Link refers to his origin as "up north" to avoid revealing his birth place. After a few bad days of being homeless he meets Ginger, a streetwise person who has been homeless for quite some time. They become best friends but Link does not trust him entirely, because each time when Ginger leaves him, Link feels scared and worries that Ginger will go back to his real friends.

Shelter

Shelter is a former ex sergeant-major who was in the army for 30 years, and is now on a mission to kill all of the homeless people of London, which he calls "dossers." He believes that there is nobody who does anything against them and politicians, social workers and even the church support them, undermining the country by encouraging "winos and crims". Thinking that the country is trying to flood the country with "garbage," he chooses to clean up the "garbage" by killing all the homeless people. Shelter plans meticulously and practices his facial expressions so he can act empathetic and lure the homeless into his house. He solves his biggest problem, the disposing of the bodies, by keeping them under the floorboards. Later in the book he refers to the victims as "the Camden Horizontals;" this is the army he wants to create with "volunteers" only. Shelter is mentally insane yet very clever as he makes sure he is leaving no pattern for the police to follow.

Ginger

Ginger is a streetwise homeless person from Birmingham who has spent 6-7 months on the street and smokes. He and Link become friends after sharing a doorway one night, and teaches Link how to survive on the streets. Later in the story, Ginger gets killed by Shelter.

Gail

Gail's real name is Louise Bain, a Scottish reporter, pretending to be a homeless person from Glasgow. She meets Link later in the story, shortly after Ginger goes missing. Link falls in love with Gail because of her shimmering chestnut locks and dazzling brown eyes. She gradually reveals her secret of being a reporter by making "urgent" and frequent phone calls, having a lot of money, and asking a lot of questions. After Shelter is arrested by the police, she tells Link of her true identity. Gail disappoints and shortchanges him. At the end she leaves giving Link enough money to survive a couple more months.

Others

Other people in this book include Link's mother and her new partner Vince, the man who sells the newspaper (who gives vital clues to Link and Gail regarding Shelter's location), and the homeless victims of the killer Shelter.

Carole

Sister of Link, and older by four years. She was kind to Link, but left home after Vince touched her. Gave him a very nice sleeping bag for the streets.

Victims

1. A Scottish man, found in a doorway near Camden Station. Shelter pretended to run a hostel on Plender Street called the Town House Project, telling him it was full tonight but he could sleep on his couch.
2. A female who was coming out of Regent Palace Hotel, Soho, after having used the restroom there. Shelter waited until she was up the road tapped her on the shoulder and pretended to be a security guard. She was upset and pleaded her innocence. He then hinted for her to come back to his place for sex, after which all would be forgiven.
3. A male who was near Grand Union Canal. Shelter pretended to run a hostel on Plender Street. Got homeless person to come to his house. The homeless man bent down to stroke the cat, and as he did this Shelter killed him with a cat food tin.
4. A black man
5. The man who stole Link's watch earlier.
6. A girl named Toya — after which Toya's father came looking for her and even went to Shelter's house, only to receive no reply. He then went to the police and they investigated, but the police only found Shelter to be a kind caring old softy.
7. Ginger was caught and killed by Shelter who pretended that he had knocked Link over in his car. Shelter had made his couch look as if there was someone covered in a blood-stained blanket lying on it. When Ginger ran to the couch, Shelter killed him.

Television

In 1997, the novel was adapted for a television series of the same title, starring James Gaddas, Peter Howitt and Elizabeth Rider , produced by Andy Rowley which was nominated for a Best Childrens' Drama Award at BAFTA. The short series was shown on Scene BBC Two.