The Goosebumps book where two kids visit England and find themselves hunted by an ax-wielding maniac.
Sue and her brother Eddie are visiting England while their parents are at a business conference. Their tour takes them to Terror Tower, an old place where they used to torture people. While on the tour, they notice a strange man in black seems to be following them. Soon they are running for their lives and discover a secret about their past along the way...
It was adapted into the sixteenth and seventeenth episodes of the first season of the 1995 TV series. It was also reissued in the Classic Goosebumps line in 2009 as a companion to The Streets of Panic Park.
Uniquely, it was the only book of the original 62-book series to receive a sequel in the Give Yourself Goosebumps spinoff series, in the form of Return to Terror Tower, the second of the GYB Special Editions.
The book provides examples of:
- Artistic License – History: Part of the plot concerns the tale of two young royals, Edward and Susannah of York, who were executed by their uncle by virtue of being heirs to the throne. While the reveal of actual magic in the world may be the big clue, Edward and Susannah never existed in this fashion. The tour guides also confirm they were sentenced to death which isn't exactly what happened. The real-life children on which Edward and Susannah are based were actually King Edward V and his brother Richard of Shrewsbury, and while they were put in the Tower of London, their uncle Richard had to first declare them as illegitimate before crowning himself. What's more, the boys' deaths were never confirmed, though a wooden box of bones was found near the tower. It's implied that even medieval England wouldn't be so cavalier as to murder royal children and look the other way, as opposed to when everyone in the book either tries to turn in Eddie and Sue or sell them out due to fear of the High Executioner. To a lesser extent, a cab driver would have been able to see that the kids tried to pay him with gold coins and either give them to the government under the Finders Keepers law or melt them down and sell as gold.
- Bait-and-Switch: While running from the High Executioner, Sue and Eddie go down to the dungeon, only for a prisoner behind bar cells to reach out his arms and beg for help. It turns out to actually be a prop and voice recording.
- British Stuffiness: Many of the locals of England portrayed in the book are stereotypically snobby and prim and proper.
- Brits Love Tea: Sue and Eddie decide to have dinner at the Barclay hotel restaurant, and when their waiter approaches their table, the first thing that he offers them is "high tea."
- Chekhov's Hobby: Eddie's pickpocketing ultimately saves him and his sister, allowing him to swipe back the time-traveling stones.
- Court Mage: Morgred. He served the previous king, and cast a spell on Prince and Princess Eddie/Edward and Sue/Susannah of York to protect them from their wicked uncle, the usurper. It fails because the High Executioner interrupted his ritual and stole one of Morgred's magic orbs to chase the children into the future, causing the new memories Morgred gave them to be incomplete.
- Day Hurts Dark-Adjusted Eyes: Upon escaping the dark feast hall, Sue opens the entry door into bright sunlight, and it takes a few seconds of blinking for the harsh white glare to fade from her eyes.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: After seeing the High Executioner chased off by rats in the sewers, Sue and Eddie think they're in the clear. But at the hotel, he approaches them, asking them, "Did you really think I wouldn't follow you? Did you really think you could escape from me?"
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The book ends with court sorcerer Morgred helping Sue and Eddie escape from certain death by once again using his magic to send them into the future (as in present day at the time), except that to prevent himself from being killed by the king, Morgred goes along with them and becomes their adoptive father, with all three now able to live happily and safe.
- Evil Uncle: The brother of the King usurped the throne by killing the rightful King and Queen. He then arranges to execute their children, Edward and Susannah of York, Eddie and Sue's real identities.
- The Executioner: The Lord High Executioner is the chief enforcer of King Robert tasked by him to execute his nephew and niece (Robert having overthrown their father). A dedicated sociopath, once tasked to kill, nothing will stand in his way of carrying out the sentence. His dedication is so great that he flows Sue and Eddie through time itself (when a friendly wizard sends them hundreds of years into the future), outright mocking them for thinking that would enough to stop him.
- Growling Gut: After getting back to the hotel, Sue can feel her stomach growling, and she realizes that she's starving.
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: Morgred the Magician. Out of memory for Edward and Susannah's parents, he sent them to the future with modified memories. The Lord High Executioner confiscated the time traveling stones that Morgred used to do the job and recapture the children. It's implied that the new king will execute Morgred for his actions, so Morgred tries to curry favor by not letting them escape the second time. Then the kids bring him to the future, where he's happy to be their parent and that they're all alive.
- Jaw Drop: As she is running away from the High Executioner whilst stuck in the past, Sue comes across a woman by a house of hers, and Sue asks her to hide her in there. To convince the woman to agree with this demand, Sue takes out the golden coins that she was carrying and offers them to her. The woman reacts with this trope.
- Lame Pun Reaction: During the tour for the Tower, Mr. Starkes (the tour guide) and the tourist group comes across the rack torture device, to which he describes what it was used for and then comments, "I believe this is what is called doing a long stretch in prison!" While some of the elderly members of the group laughed, Sue and Eddie react by exchanging solemn glances.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Kind of inverted in with the Lord High Executioner. When he shows up in Terror Tower, he instead appears as a quiet man in a black cape and hat — though the TV version has him as a more sinister man who doesn't wear a mask.
- My Master, Right or Wrong: The Lord High Executioner may or may not have been loyal to the former king and queen. But when the siblings' usurper uncle ordered their death, the executioner intends to do so without question.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Technically with the heirs to the throne sent to the future, with no memories of their past life and no means to survive, their uncle won. There is no way that Eddie and Sue can make it through the twentieth century when no one identifies their currency as being valuable, ancient gold coins. Yet the High Executioner pursues them through time to ensure that they are smothered in medieval England, which allows the wizard Morgred to explain the situation and restore their memories before the guards come. When Eddie pickpockets Morgred for the stones they need to return to the future, they take him along since they need a parent and someone who knows the future. While it doesn't change much in history, it means their uncle and the High Executioner lack the peace of mind that his niece and nephew are still out there and they can't follow through time.
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Prince Edward and Princess Susannah of York are blatantly based on Edward V of England and Richard of Shrewsbury, first Duke of York — right down to being imprisoned in a tower by their Evil Uncle.
- "Open!" Says Me: Sue and Eddie do this to a door in the Tower while they're running away from the High Executioner.
- Parental Substitute: In the climax, Morgred the sorcerer is set to fill this role for Edward and Susannah when they finally escape into the future to live new lives away from their evil uncle and the High Executioner. As the late, rightful King's court mage, he promised to protect them from harm.
- Sticky Fingers: Eddie greatly enjoys thieving, which comes in handy for helping to recover the three white stones.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: The best example of this in the series, in which the protagonists escape the executioner and travel to the future with Morgred, apparently with no strings attached.
- Swarm of Rats: An enormous wave of rats in the London sewers, which Sue and Eddie come across, much to their horror. Interestingly enough, it also scares the High Executioner, and the rats drive him away while Sue and Eddie escape.
- Tempting Fate: Upon realizing that the so-called prisoners in the dungeon were actually fake, Sue said that she and Eddie are okay. That is when the High Executioner barges into the barred door that he was pushing through, leaving them in his wrath.
- Time Travel Episode: The story involves Eddie and Susan being dragged back in time. After they'd been sent forward in time first. They escape back to the modern world in the climax.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Eddie and Sue are Prince Edward and Princess Susannah of York, and they've been sent to the future from their original time by a wizard to protect them from their usurper uncle.
- Ungrateful Bastard: The woman who agrees to hide Sue. Even though she paid her golden coins, which must have had a lot of value to them given her shocked reaction, she still cowardly sold Sue out to the High Executioner when he barges inside to look for her. Though she at least apologizes to her for this.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: In one of the strangest cases of this, considering that the U.K. has a Finders Keepers law about finding ancient coins and treasures in real life, a cab driver doesn't recognize the money that Eddie and Sue pay him as gold. While it may be plausible for him to think they're playing a joke on him, the U.K. values such treasures.
