A dollhouse takes a dark turn in this novel that will please mystery fans as well as readers who like ghost stories. Zibby Thorne can't understand what possessed her to buy this antique dollhouse on her twelfth birthday, and why was it so cheap? Soon, Zibby hears strange voices, and horrible things start happening. The dollhouse is clearly haunted. A parallel tale, set in 1919, alternates with Zibby's story and explains the past events that are influencing the dangerous goings-on. This has such a glut of both plots and characters that readers may find it difficult, especially in the beginning, to keep all the relationships straight (e.g., two new friends, though of the same age, are aunt and niece, and Zibby's cousin and new stepsister are not dissimilar). What will keep kids going are the key elements of mystery: What will happen next, and how will the culprits be discovered? On these points, the book scores, keeping tension high and offering several ingenious twists on the road to the conclusion.

Compelled to purchase a strange old dollhouse she finds at a hobbyists' convention, Zibby is frightened to discover that it's haunted--and dangerous. This is one of the spookier entries in a popular genre, and while overlong and overpopulated, it manages to whip up some genuine menace.

<p>Reiss's deliciously creepy tale is a solid addition to the haunted dollhouse genre. When Zibby, under the influence of a compulsion not her own, buys an antique dollhouse on her 12th birthday, she finds herself caught up in a decades-old haunting: Primrose, the former owner of the dollhouse, is haunted by the controlling governess whose death Primrose caused as a child. Both dollhouse and doll representing cruel Miss Honeywell are tools by which the dead governess wields her revenge, and Zibby soon discovers that she and those around her are in danger. Chapters about Zibby as she tries to sort out the mystery are interspersed with ones about Primrose's childhood under the thumb of "sweet" Miss Honeywell and her self-serving attempts as an adult to rid herself of haunted doll and dollhouse. As with most horror stories, it doesn't do to examine the motives of the evil personae too closely. Reiss has reworked material from an earlier paperback series here, and the result, while a bit long, delivers a good dose of shivery entertainment. (Fiction. 11-14)</p>

Gr 5-8-After Zibby is mysteriously compelled to spend all of the money that she had been saving for inline skates on an old dollhouse, she discovers that it is inhabited by a malicious doll that seems bent on causing harm to the 12-year-old, her family, and her friends. This doll is the ghost of Miss Honeywell, a cruel and bitter woman who was once the governess of young Primrose, the original owner of the dollhouse in 1919. As the entity becomes more powerful, Zibby and her friends try to solve the mystery of the dollhouse before her family is destroyed. This theme has been explored in many books, including Betty Ren Wright's shorter but more chilling The Dollhouse Murders (Holiday, 1983). The story begins strongly with an air of menace, but the suspense isn't maintained throughout the rather long narrative. Readers will probably stick with it, though, due to the easy flow of the writing and the likable characters; this is not just a ghost story but a tale of kids trying to adjust to new stepparents and stepsiblings. The plot gets cluttered as more ghosts pop out of the woodwork, but the stray ends are all tied together at the dramatic but contrived climax. A good choice for libraries with a high demand for thrillers.-Eva Mitnick, Los Angeles Public Library Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.