The author of The Stone Child (2009) and The Nightmarys (2010) crafts another undisguised chiller-thriller, this one featuring an abandoned asylum and the aggressive spirit of a young murder victim. Neil, a young amateur ghost hunter, is initially thrilled to hear that he and his older sister, Bree, are summering near a psychiatric hospital that closed more than a decade ago after three mysterious drownings and the purported suicide of an accused night nurse. His feelings change after a visit to the spooky ruin sparks a nonstop chain of nightmares, apparitions, numbness and tingling, slimy pond weeds in the bathwater, and other phenomena that lead him to the conclusion that at least one of the victimized young patients was indeed murdered. In a staccato narrative festooned with not just psychic manifestations but sudden screams, slamming doors, squealing hinges, ominous footsteps, electrical failures, moving shadows, and minor but gory wounds, Poblocki misses nary a horror-story trope as he propels his cast through one terrifying incident after another to, at last, a climactic flight. Definitely a story to be read by flashlight.

Gr 5-8 When Neil's father abandons the family to pursue fame in California, Neil and his teenage sister, Bree, are sent to stay with their aunts while their mother receives treatment for depression. The small upstate New York village where Claire and Anna live is home to Graylock Hall, a state psychiatric hospital that closed down 15 years earlier after several teenaged patients drowned. Neil's new friend Wesley quickly fills him in on the local legend of Nurse Janet, who is thought to be responsible for the patients' deaths and now haunts the abandoned building. Since Neil's favorite TV show is Ghostly Investigators , he relishes the thought of exploring the hospital for clues. But when he and Wesley, along with their older siblings, break into the building, they set off a chain of harrowing events that cannot be explained. In the days after their narrow escape, Neil and Bree are plagued by horrific visions and nightly visits from a ghost. As time goes on, they slowly realize that their spectral visitor is one of the drowning victims who wants to bring her murderer to justice. The further the four get in uncovering clues, the more apparent it becomes that Nurse Janet has been unjustly accused-and that the real murderer is intent on making sure that the truth is never brought to light. As with The Nightmarys (Random, 2010), Poblocki is in his element with eerie happenings and atmospheric settings. Short chapters with cliff-hanger endings and several twists and turns in the plot will ensure that the pages turn quickly. Give this book to Mary Downing Hahn fans and others who enjoy spine-tingling mysteries. Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

Twelve-year-old Neil and his older sister Bree are sent to live in the country with their aunts for the summer. When the siblings learn of the legend of Nurse Janet, accused of murdering children at the now-abandoned psychiatric hospital Graylock Hall, they dig into the mystery with terrifying results. Uncovered secrets, chilling suspense, and many cliff-hangers allay the book's occasionally weak writing.