The Haunting of Aveline Jones

Aveline is not looking forward to spending half term with her austere Aunt Lilian in Malmouth, a windswept village on the Cornish coast. Despite her fondness for ghost stories, she finds the town a little creepy, particularly when sinister scarecrows appear outside people’s homes in the lead up to Halloween.

When she finds a book about local ghosts and phantoms in a dusty, second-hand bookshop, Aveline is intrigued to learn that it once belonged to 11-year-old Primrose Penberthy, who mysteriously disappeared from Malmouth thirty years earlier. Hoping the stories may provide clues about Primrose’s fate, Aveline investigates, enlisting the help of bookseller Mr Lieberman and his great-nephew Harold. However, as Aveline is drawn deeper into the tales, events take an unsettling turn. 

With appealing characters, a spine-tingling plot and a fittingly bleak, stormy setting, this chilling chapter book is not for the faint-hearted. Ideal for confident junior readers, it is enhanced by a smattering of atmospheric black-and-white illustrations. The first in a compelling series of ghostly mysteries, which is sure to prompt readers to check under their beds before they turn the lights out.