The Crowham Martyrs

Maddy has found herself sent to a highly unusual boarding school after her actress mother moves to Hollywood to join a new partner.  This is a school that seems to be hiding secrets and it is full of ghosts; unfortunately Maddy has the ability to see them.  Then Maddy starts getting visions and her new school friend Hannah disappears.  There is also talk of demons and witches who were killed during the 16th century, but what is their connection to the school and its scary events. Importantly, who can Maddy trust and how can she solve the mysteries that seem to be closing in around her.

This is a great story for the middle years, although the heroine is a 13-year-old girl.  There is the combination of boarding school linked to magic and witches, but there is a darkness that can seem to be missing in similar themed stories.  There are so many questions for Maddy to answer and we quite often see her frustration and uncertainties show themselves as anger at the people around her.  It is an exciting and well plotted story, although the dark threat to our heroine remains in the shadows and we do not really feel the full horror that he can bring.

This is above all a story about love in its varying forms and about friendship and how we have to learn to trust others.  Maddy goes on a journey of discovery, some of which shake the slim foundations of her life. The few certainties that she thought she knew are undermined and Maddy has to grow up a bit more as she comes to terms with the new realities of her life.  A great story for girls in particular, but it should attract readers of both genders with its action and characters.