What better way to kick off this summer than by reading a
tale about children trapped inside of a haunted Scottish castle?
The children of a British spy, siblings Katherine (Kat),
Rob, and Amelie are sent to live and study at Rookskill Castle Children’s
Academy far away from London on the Scottish moors during the remainder of the
1940 Blitz. They quickly befriend Peter Williams, an American child living in
London, who is also sent to Rookskill Castle.
When the children arrive in the spooky dawn after the long
train ride, they are met with the cold countenance of Lady Eleanor Craig, the
mistress of the castle. She is clearly hiding something, and rules the boarding
school with an iron fist. As the children start disappearing one-by-one, and
are being written off as “sick” without further explanation, the doors to their
rooms locked, even level-headed Kat starts to think there are supernatural
forces at work. It is up to her and her code-cracking skills inherited from her
father that she starts to believe the castle is harboring an enemy. The
question is whether the enemy is a Nazi spy or a ghost.
The characters of Kat, Rob, Amelie, and Peter are
reminiscent of the four Pevensie children from The Chronicles of Narnia. With
chapters that alternate between the castle’s shadowy past and present, Janet
Fox skillfully brings together myth, history, and haunted castles into a great
mystery that will keep the reader guessing until the end.
Review originally appeared in The Clarion Ledger.
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