Review: Spooksmiths Investigate: The Cinderman

*Written by Alex Atkinson*
*Cover illustration by Miriam Serafin*
*Published by Usborne*

Spooksmiths Investigate: The Cinderman is a deliciously spooky, humorous mystery with a chilling edge guaranteed to send shivers down your spine.

Twelve-year-old twins Indigo and Rusty live in a 400-year-old house on the outskirts of the village of Greyscar which also happens to be a funeral home. Despite this, they do not believe in ghosts … until Indigo accidentally finds a hidden door behind a bookcase and decides to investigate.

In the dark room behind the bookcase, she finds something on a table and decides to bring it back to the funeral parlour. The old, dented urn which she has brought back frightens her when its lid rattles making her drop it … releasing an ash cloud that escapes through the open window, but not before she hears its voice …

The next morning, she wakes to an eerie silence and looks outside to see that everything has been coated in a layer of ash and, worse still, her parents are acting very strangely … as are all the other villagers … as if they have no control over their actions.

But why are the twins not affected by this smothering ash? It is not long before they discover that they are immune to the effects of the ash because they are spooksmiths who can see and communicate with ghosts. And Indigo has accidentally released a terrifying ghost on the village: the Cinderman who intends to turn everyone into zombies and hide the village from the outside world under a layer of ash.

And so begins a spine-tinglingly spooky mystery that kept me on the edge of my seat as I followed these two daring investigators as they race against time to learn the secrets of the Cinderman. What power does a name hold? Can they learn the Cinderman’s weakness before sunset? Or will Greyscar become a town of zombies trapped in ash and ruled over by a terrifying ghost lord?

I loved the inexorable building of tension as danger increases and time runs out which made this a real page-turner and totally unputdownable. The atmosphere was incredibly eerie and creepy with the ash encapsulating the town and people being controlled like puppets by an evil entity. The ghosts who help the twins in their mission are fantastic – and bring some brilliantly humorous moments as well as some poignant ones!

I really liked both Indigo and Rusty whose initial bickering and arguments change to support and teamwork as they learn to work together in their mission to defeat the Cinderman. As they find themselves in more and more peril, they come to realise the importance of family and friendship which gives them the strength, courage and determination to continue their pursuit of the terrifying Cinderman. I also have to mention Phrank who I absolutely adored – and who brought lots of humour!

A spooky and humorous horror-mystery, with family and friendship at its heart, perfect to snuggle up with on a dark evening for a frighteningly fantastic reading treat.

Thank you to Usborne for providing me with a proof copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Blog Tour: Black Gables by Eibhlís Carcione

*Written by Eibhlís Carcione*
*Cover design and internal illustrations by Holly Ovenden*
*Published by Everything With Words*

Black Gables is a deliciously dark, spine-tinglingly spooky and gloriously gothic mystery that swirls with danger, frights and secrets … an absolutely riveting read.

Twelve-year-old Rosella Frawley’s mother has lost her memory after an accident so the family have returned to the place where she grew up, Black Gables, in the hope that the familiarity of her childhood home will trigger her memory to return. But Black Gables is not a place for hope …

Rosella starts the local school, Black Gables, named after its entrance: the black gables of the workhouse that had once stood there. She immediately feels the suffocating atmosphere as fingers of thick, greenish fog reach from the lake that edges the school. There is no laughter as children arrive, and Rosella reluctantly enters the school as a strange assortment of teachers appear, expecting work to be completed in silence. And then she meets the seriously sinister headmaster, Mr Edge …

And so begins an intriguing, creepy mystery with a lyrical and surreal quality that held me completely enthralled as Rosella tries to make connections with the past and discover the secrets of Black Gables and the lake ghouls. Could Mr Edge be communicating with these ghouls? Will Rosella’s determined efforts to seek the truth put her in danger? And, is everyone at the school quite what they appear?

This is an intensely eerie, chilling and dark mystery that sent shivers down my spine and kept me eagerly turning pages – sometimes from behind my fingers! Black Gables feels like a place both lost and hidden in time, yet waiting for a renewal which creeps ever closer with an inexorable feeling of foreboding as Rosella gets more and more entangled in her search for the truth before time runs out.

The portrayal of the teachers and students is just incredible! I absolutely felt the sense of the macabre and the strangeness which emanates from them with their old-fashioned clothing, draconian attitudes, unusual appearances and assortment of creatures. I loved that rather unsettling feeling with a few of the characters as I didn’t know if Rosella should trust them, but hoped she could. Mr Edge is a particularly sinister character not least because, whilst everyone adulates him, creepiness oozes from him.

Rosella is an incredibly sympathetic young girl who is struggling to deal with her mum not recognising her daughter, and hoping desperately that the family’s return to Black Gables will help her mum’s memories return. She senses something is not quite right with the school and refuses to become another compliant student. Instead, she is determined to discover the truth that hides in the lake and shows great courage in standing up for herself and others as she pursues her investigation.

The perfect spooky season read … visit Black Gables … if you dare!

Thank you to Mikka at Everything with Words for inviting me to be part of the Blog Tour, and for providing me with a copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Do check out the other stops on the Blog Tour:

October Spooky Reads TBR …

I love spooky children’s books so have decided to make October a month where I read some newly released ones, but also catch up with some that have been waiting patiently on my bookshelves.

I have taken the synopsis from Waterstones website.

Sometimes, secrets don’t stay buried forever. Sometimes, they need to be set free… Twelve-year-old Edie and her younger brother Pip are spending half term at Fortune Farm, high in the Irish mountains, with their grandmother Lolly. They haven’t visited Fortune Farm for YEARS and Edie has been dreading it for MONTHS. They spent all their holidays there when Dad was alive. And Edie doesn’t like thinking about Dad – even the happy memories haunt her too much. When Edie uncovers a clue that could lead her to long-lost Viking treasure, it’s just the adventure she needs to take her mind off Dad. But the adventure soon takes an unnerving and dangerous turn, and Edie discovers that Fortune Farm has more secrets, mysteries and ghosts than she had ever dared to dream. A spine-tingling adventure about the power of memories and the restless spirits that whisper on the wind…

Mallory Vayle would list her interests as being normal, books about ponies and very definitely NOT talking to dead people. But when her parents’ carriage takes a leap off Gibbett Bridge – an accident for which there appears to be no explanation – she is taken in by a strange aunt the family disowned years ago and brought to her new, and very spooky, home. Aunt Lilith, a charlatan psychic, is quick to monetise Mallory’s prodigious skills in talking to dead people and starts to advertise grand seances (ticketed obvs) in her spiritual news sheet. The ghosts of her parents also take up residence in the house but are cruelly snatched away by the shadow of Hellysh Spatzl, the grimmest, wickedest necromancer in all of history. To get them back, Mallory will have to learn how to use the talents she hates and raise the old hag from the dead.

Indigo and Rusty might live in a funeral parlour, but they don’t believe in ghosts. That is, until Indigo drops an old urn, accidentally releasing the Cinderman: a terrifying ash monster, who will smother their town in ashes and turn everyone into zombies, unless they can stop him by sunset. Using their newly awakened Spooksmith skills, Indigo and Rusty set out to enlist the help of other ghosts. But can the Blasted Banshee and Chuckles the Phantom Toddler really help them find the Cinderman’s true name and put him in his grave for good before Ashmageddon strikes?

The village is alive with rumours about the Tall Man and Tom lives in his house. Tom hears a boy in the cellar offering a ‘special’ acorn to a rat, Captain Rat, whom he begs to find the key to his leg-iron. The cellar is empty but Tom knows that the boy is real and he’s convinced that he is trapped in a brutal past and the Tall Man’s prisoner. Each time Tom tries to help the boy, the Tall Man’s ghostly presence intensifies. Who is the boy in the cellar and can they escape Tall Man?

When orphans Ben and Jennet arrive in the seaside town of Whitby to stay with Alice Boston, they have no idea what to expect. A lively 92-year-old, Miss Boston is unlike any other foster mother they’ve known. Ben is gifted with ‘the sight’, which gives him the power to see things invisible to other mortals. He soon encounters the mysterious fisher folk who live under the cliffs and discovers that Alice and her friends are not quite what they seem. But a darkness is stalking the streets of Whitby, bringing with it fear and death. Could it be a ghost from the Abbey? Or a beast from hell? Unless the truth is uncovered, the town and all its inhabitants is doomed.

It is the summer of 1919 when Henrietta Abott (Henry for short) and her family – Mama, Father, Nanny Jane and her baby sister who everyone calls Piglet – move to Hope House. Tragic events have left the family fragile, hoping the new house will bring with it the fresh start they all so desperately need. But Mama is ill and when Henry’s father takes a job abroad the family is left under the care of Doctor Hardy, a man Henry doesn’t trust. As Doctor Hardy exerts more control over the family Henry finds herself drawn-in by the house – its secret stairways, hidden doors, unexplained sounds and shadows in the candle’s guttering flame. Then there is the mysterious firelight that glows in the distant trees beyond the garden, in the close-knit darkness of Nightingale Wood. What Henry finds there will change her whole world forever.

Penelope Tredwell is the feisty thirteen-year-old orphan heiress of the bestselling magazine, The Penny Dreadful. Her masterly tales of the macabre are gripping Victorian Britain, even if no one knows she’s the author. One day, a letter she receives from the governor of the notorious Bedlam madhouse plunges her into an adventure more terrifying than anything she has ever imagined. Why are the patients of Bedlam waking every night at twelve minutes to midnight? What is the meaning of the strange messages they write? Who is the Spider Lady of South Kensington? Penelope is always seeking mysteries to fill the pages of her magazine. But this isn’t any ordinary story, it’s the future. And the future looks deadly…

Tibor is a child of the night, a werwolf, adopted by his guardian, a powerful vampir. He and his friend Roza are on the deadliest of quests, and one that will test their very immortality. And they’re not the only ones hunting for the Midnight Treasure. Battling with bears, wrestling with vampirs and racing against the clock, Tibor and Roza must decide who to trust. And whether they will dare reveal the secrets … of the Midnight Treasure.

Have you read any of these? Do you have any other suggestions of spooky books to add to my TBR?