PROSPERO'S CHILDREN

Sixteen-year-old Fern Capel lives in London with her younger brother, Will, and her father, Robin, a publisher. When a

distant seafaring relative leaves Fern a house in Yorkshire, they all go to stay there for the summer. It's an odd place, with a ship's figurehead in the barn, a mysterious locked, keyless desk, and numerous uncanny goings-on. It doesn't help that Robin's beguiled by Alison Redmond, whom Fern suspects of being a witch. Yet the Capels find friends as well: Ragginbone, who sometimes turns into a rock, mentions a missing key that opens the Gate of Death; and Lougarry, a werewolf unable to resume her human form, helps defend the house against malevolent intruders. Alison, however, invites herself to stay while Robin's away on business. Her friend, the suave, too-clever art-gallery owner Javier Holt, stops by. An evil stone idol casts a pall in the front room. Fern frees a unicorn trapped in a painting in Alison's room. Then one night Fern steals downstairs to find Alison conspiring with the idol to learn the whereabouts of the key. Finally, when Fern locates it, Alison grabs it and flings wide the Gate—but it's a doorway into Atlantis! Seawater pours through, drowning Alison, though then the door doesn't close. Fern, a descendant of Atlantis, must enter. Despite the sometimes suspect logic and overwrought prose, an inventive, well-handled effort, with commendable character

development. An encouraging debut—stay tuned for the rest of the trilogy.