He studied English and American Literature at the University of East Anglia, and it was here that he first explored his love of publishing. After experimenting in the service and retail trades for a few years, Smith decided to go to University. Born in 1979 in Norwich, England, he always wanted to be a writer. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace’s deeper, darker purpose, Alex’s actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that’s hidden from the eyes of the world.Īlexander Gordon Smith is the author of the Escape from Furnace series of young adult novels, including Lockdown and Solitary. Together with a bunch of inmates-some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers-Alex plans an escape. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world.

Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface.

Lockdown by Alexander Gordon Smith