An atmospheric, well-paced adventure exploring supernatural mysteries during a steamy Savannah summer.
While looking for answers about grief and loss, 12-year-old Harmony Roundtree ends up finding a murder mystery.
After the death of her grandmother, Harmony leaves Harlem and tours the country with her blues guitarist dad, entertaining herself with ghost tours. Her goal: to photograph a ghost and prove they’re real. Daddy and his band head to Savannah, Georgia, “widely considered to be one of the most haunted cities in the United States,” for six weeks. Harmony is surprised they’re staying with her dad’s friend Lena, whom she’s never heard of but who turns out to have known her late mother. There’s something about Daddy’s behavior around Lena that makes Harmony feel left out, and the recent murder of Lena’s friend Tim Truman, who ran Black history tours, makes her uneasy. During a ghost tour of Savannah, Harmony discovers what she believes is a haunted house, and she takes a photo of what may be the ghost of the murdered man. She confronts her dad about his strange behavior and sets out to discover the truth—for herself and for Mr. Truman’s family—with the help of new friend Myah and Lena’s 10-year-old son, Robby. Harmony is a fully realized character, whose grief is paired with a wistfulness that makes her sympathetic. This roller-coaster of a story centering on a cast of Black characters highlights courageous young people who dive deep into danger.
An atmospheric, well-paced adventure exploring supernatural mysteries during a steamy Savannah summer. (map) (Mystery. 10-13)Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2026
ISBN: 9798225017477
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2026
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls.
Three young ghost trappers take on deadly wraiths and solve an old murder case in the bargain to kick off Stroud’s new post-Bartimaeus series.
Narrator Lucy Carlyle hopes to put her unusual sensitivity to supernatural sounds to good use by joining Lockwood & Co.—one of several firms that have risen to cope with the serious ghost Problem that has afflicted England in recent years. As its third member, she teams with glib, ambitious Anthony Lockwood and slovenly-but-capable scholar George Cubbins to entrap malign spirits for hire. The work is fraught with peril, not only because a ghost’s merest touch is generally fatal, but also, as it turns out, as none of the three is particularly good at careful planning and preparation. All are, however, resourceful and quick on their feet, which stands them in good stead when they inadvertently set fire to a house while discovering a murder victim’s desiccated corpse. It comes in handy again when they later rashly agree to clear Combe Carey Hall, renowned for centuries of sudden deaths and regarded as one of England’s most haunted manors. Despite being well-stocked with scream-worthy ghastlies, this lively opener makes a light alternative for readers who find the likes of Joseph Delaney’s Last Apprentice series too grim and creepy for comfort.
A heartily satisfying string of entertaining near-catastrophes, replete with narrow squeaks and spectral howls. (Ghost adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4231-6491-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
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Fast-moving but let down by questionable omissions.
The efforts of six New Jersey kids to prevent the Nazis from winning World War II continue in this sequel to Westfallen (2024).
In 1944, Alice, Lawrence, and Artie struggle to correct their catastrophic error that, as Alice repeatedly has it, “DESTROYED THE FUTURE.” In 2023, Frances and Henry desperately research the changed history that finds the U.S. transformed into the Nazi-controlled tributary state of Westfallen. Jewish Lukas is largely confined, unable to help them or reach the magic shed that houses the radio that allows the kids to communicate across time, putting him at risk of losing his memories. Meanwhile, in 1944, Lawrence collects scrap metal alongside a kid who grows up to be a patient in the Home for Incurables, where Henry works in 2023. Could that kid hold the key to restoring the timeline? In this volume, Lawrence and Frances join Alice and Henry as first-person narrators, depriving Lukas and Artie of narrative agency. This lack is particularly distressing in Lukas’ case, as his isolation is affecting his personality. It falls to Henry and Alice to prod him into action—which is unfortunate for a novel that never names the Holocaust and omits persecution of the Jews from Alice’s father’s explanation of Nazi ideology (although antisemitism is an obvious feature of life in this alternate timeline). The crackling pace can’t obscure these lapses. Alice, Artie, and Frances are white, Lawrence is Black, and biracial Henry is Black and white.
Fast-moving but let down by questionable omissions. (Science fiction/thriller. 10-13)Pub Date: Sept. 16, 2025
ISBN: 9781665950848
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2025
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