The Edge
Alan Gibbons
 At the start of the book, a mother and her son escape from their evil stepfather. The stepfather, named Chris, hears them and chases them to the local tube station, though he is unsuccessful in his efforts to catch them. Unknown to Chris, the mother, Cathy, and the son, Danny, are going to live with Cathy's mother and father, Joan and Harry, in an area of the country known as "the Edge". Chris believes that he owns Cathy, and tries to get her back. At first, Harry refuses to accept Danny because he is both Mixed Race, and the result of an unplanned teenage pregnancy. As the book progresses, Harry accepts Danny as his grandson. Danny has a lot of trouble at school with a racist bully named Steve Parker and his friends. Danny befriends, and later dates a girl called Nikki, who Steve fancies. Nikki warns him not to get on the wrong side of Steve; it is implied in the novel that Steve and his gang were responsible for an arson attack on a black-owned store. Also during this time Danny encounters his real father, a man named Des, who saves him from Steve's gang. Chris, meanwhile, is attempting in vain to find out where Cathy fled to. She covered her tracks well leaving virtually no clues. Eventually, he finds a newspaper article, and is able to deduce where she and Danny have gone. Chris shows up at Danny's new school, and chases him back to the house. Attempting to retake Cathy by force, he overpowers Harry, before being restrained by police officers. At the end of the novel, Chris is in prison, and Danny now has a happy family and a good life.