The first book in the bestselling BATTLE OF THE BEETLES series – perfect for fans of Roald Dahl! Winner of the Branford Boase Award Shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Children's Book Award Chosen for the Tom Fletcher Book Club 'Truly great storytelling.' MICHAEL MORPURGO 'Funny, exciting and genuinely eccentric' PHILIP REEVE 'Roald Dahl meets 101 Dalmatians in a rollicking ride, full of adventure with vivid characters' EXPRESS 'By the end, you'll think beetles are the coolest creatures on the planet' TOM FLETCHER Darkus’s dad is missing – vanished from a locked room in the Natural History Museum. The police are baffled; how can someone disappear without a trace? Moving in with his eccentric uncle, Darkus discovers a new friend in a giant beetle – and it wants to communicate. But can a boy and a beetle be friends? And can they find Darkus’s dad together?    The first book in MG Leonard's acclaimed trilogy, followed by Beetle Queen and Battle of the Beetles! Featuring exotic beetles, a daring quest, a mixture of bold male and female characters and a truly venomous villain Includes brilliant illustrations by Julia Sardà From the author of Hunt for the Golden Scarab, Twitch and the Adventure on Trains series, co-written with Sam Sedgman