Spooked: The Haunting of Kit Connelly

Kit Connelly is just a normal 11-year-old, getting used to secondary school, being best friends with Nina and worrying about her parents.  Until she narrowly avoids being killed by a bus and sees what she thinks is a ghost.  This leads to thoughts of mortality and of leaving the world a better place, so Kit decides to organise an international conference about the environment, but with young delegates from across the world.  However such things take a lot of planning and a great deal of money to stage.   Enter the fairy godfather, in the guise of an eccentric pop star; but is he really to be trusted?

Paul Bryers has created a great story with a couple of unexpected twists that keep the reader focused to the end.   The hint of ghosts and the supernatural do not overpower the story and it stays very much about Kit and the challenges that she suddenly receives.  The fast paced adventure takes us to the forts in the Thames estuary, fascinating places that are little known to people outside the area, but which provide a suitable background to the developing story.

The author has allowed Kit’s parents to play a part in the story which helps develop them as characters and enables changes to be made in their behaviour.  This adds balance to the plot and allows a sense of reality, even when some very strange events are taking place.

Over all this is a well plotted book for the age range.  It is very much a stand alone novel, with no sense that a series is envisaged.  We get the impression that Kit is very glad when life gets back to normal. Good for year 5 upwards and readable by both boys and girls.