How the trouble started - Robert Williams

The police were involved over the trouble. They had to be. 'I was just playing,' I told them, but that wasn't enough. They wanted to know what I understood by 'intent'.

Donald Bailey is sixteen. He can't forget the trouble that happened when he was eight, when the police were called. His mother can't forget either and even leaving their home town doesn't help. Then Donald befriends Jake, who is eight years old and terrifyingly vulnerable. As he tries to protect him, Donald fails to see the most obvious danger. And that the trouble might be closer than he thinks...

Following Robert Williams's prize-winning debut Luke and Jon, How the Trouble Started
is a dark, gripping novel about childhood, morality and the loneliness
of children and adults. Told with Robert Williams's characteristic
warmth, humanity and deceptively light touch, it is a story about how
our best and worst intentions can lead us astray, and the moments we can never leave behind.