The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall
Category: ReviewAuthor: Mary Downing HahnGenres: Fiction, Ghost Stories, Middle Grade, ThrillerWhen twelve-year-old Florence boards the crowded horse-drawn coach in London, she looks forward to a new life with her great uncle and aunt at Crutchfield Hall, an old manor house in the English countryside. Anything will be better, she thinks, than the grim London orphanage where she has lived since her parents’ death. But Florence doesn’t expect the ghost of her cousin Sophia, who haunts the cavernous rooms and dimly lit hallways of Crutchfield and concocts a plan to use Florence to help her achieve her murderous goals. Will Florence be able to convince the others in the household of the imminent danger and stop Sophia before it’s too late?The Ghost of Crutchfield Hall is indeed a very good middle-grade school ghost story. It’s the kind of ghost story that makes you feel a little uneasy as you’re reading it. You feel worried for the protagonist, in this case, a young orphan named Florence. The story takes place in the English countryside in the late 1800s. In spite of the story’s more common elements, i.e., spooky old house in the countryside, mean female adult, friendly male adult, etc, Hahn also brought in some unique elements, i.e., things you’ll have to read the book to find out about. 😉