Remember those scary stories told around the campfire when you were a kid? Take the spooky factor of those, and add a good bit of literary merit, and you have a terrifically creepy book that manages to provide a real chill without a significant amount of blood and gore. The tone of this "ghostly tale" starts off rich and never lets up. It's a page turner of quality. Auxier freely admits sources that inspired him in an author's note at the end. Ray Bradbury, Washington Irving, J. M. Barrie and Frances Hodgson Burnett all influenced a story that feels like a cross between something conjured by the Bronte sisters and a yarn spun by an old man in an Irish bar. The story is simple -- two Irish kids end up at an English estate as "the help" after escaping the famine at home. Except things aren't that simple. The Windsor family that Molly and Kip wait on aren't well, and they have secrets. Added to that, there is a nighttime mystery, one that becomes increasingly frightening as the chapters unfold. It's also a morality play, one that gives warning to those who would have their dreams fulfilled. Not hooked yet? Check out this opening: "The calendar said early March, but the smell in the air said late October. A crisp sun shone over Cellar Hollow, melting the final bits of ice from the bare trees. Steam rose from the soil like a phantom, carrying with it a whisper of autumn smoke that had been lying dormant in the frosty underground." Yes, I read it in two sittings, as I simply couldn't put it down. Absolutely a stellar read. But don't read it before you go to sleep at night ...
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