Count Karlstein, or The Ride of the Demon Huntsman, was Philip Pullman's first novel for children, published by Chatto and Windus in 1982.

It is a wonderful gothic melodrama which he first wrote as a play for school-children when he was an English teacher.

Two young girls are in danger: their wicked uncle has made a bargain to hand them over to the terrifying Demon Huntsman, and it's up to a young maidservant called Hildi to rescue them.