The Dark and Dangerous Gifts of Delores Mackenzie

Delores and her sister Delilah live alone on a small Scottish island, after their parents mysteriously disappeared.  Both of them have paranormal abilities, but Delores has the ability to see ghosts. When her sister is given a job in Norway, Delores is sent to start her training in how to control her abilities.  She is sent to live with ‘the uncles’, who live in the Old Town area of Edinburgh; an area long renowned for the spooky goings on.  What Delores finds is much darker and more dangerous than she could ever have imagined.  The spirits that she finds are trying to cross the divide and return to this world and will do whatever they can to make it happen.  However, she also has to cope with the less than welcoming characters she finds in her new ‘home’, they question is whether she can learn to live with the others and can they also solve the issues with the spirits.

This is a wonderful story of magic and mystery that positively oozes dark and sinister happenings.  The atmosphere of the Old Town is brilliantly described and definitely reflects the dark and narrow alleys and tenements for which the area is famous.  Delores is a strong character who finds it difficult to follow the rules and regulations, but her main desire in life is to find out what happened to her parents and even find them if at all possible.  The connections with family are strong themes that occur throughout the book and which apply to several groups of people; however, we also get the feeling that family can be a much broader concept, based around mutual love and respect.  This is a wonderful book for those who like the more sinister idea of ghost story.  It avoids the definition of being a horror story, but definitely sends a shiver down the spine and is probably best read in daylight.    A highly recommended tory for KS3.