Lockett & Wilde's Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries: The Ghosts of the Manor - Lucy Strange & Pam Smy

 

Matilda lives with her Aunt Evelyn and is part of a stage show where her aunt plays Signora Valentina who can speak to the dead; Matilda being the dead person she can speak to.  But when Baroness Beauchamp comes backstage one evening and declares that her manor is 'most dreadfully haunted' Aunt Evelyn, Matilda, Uncle Barnabus (also part of the show) and Colin the parakeet end up moving to Beauchamp Manor to help remove the ghost.  However, when they arrive, it's Matilda who discovers she has the gift of seeing the dead that her Aunt pretends to have, but can she rid the manor of the ghost and what of Edgar who she befriends who also happens to be a ghost?

Lucy Strange always writes wonderful books that create a mysterious atmosphere so I was very exciting to curl up with Lockett & Wilde's Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries and I most definitely wasn't disappointed.  The Ghost of the Manor is a wonderfully gothic novel with just the right balance of spookiness and humour that allows readers to immerse themselves in Matilda's Victorian world without being too scared.  

Matilda has grown up being part of her aunt and uncle's fraudulent theatre show where the audience are lead to believe Evelyn talks to ghosts, so it comes as a great shock to Matilda when she learns that she's the one in the family who actually has the power.  It's this that leads her to meet Edgar, a young boy about her own age who just happens to be a ghost tethered to Beauchamp Manor.  Together, they become a crime-fighting duo to be reckoned with, intent on ridding the manor of unwanted ghosts as well as trying to get to the bottom of fraudulent goings on.  Their friendship blossoms quickly and shines through the pages of the book, as does their trust in one another, and I know that readers will delight in getting to know them (there is already a queue in my class for the book after they saw me reading it last week!).

With wonderful illustrations by Pam Smy that perfectly complement the story-telling, The Ghosts of the Manor is a heart-warming book that is perfect for this time of year as the nights grow dark and cold.  The first in a new series, I'm already eager to see what lies in wait next for Lockett & Wilde's Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries.