Book Reviews and More: Return of the Grudstone Ghosts - Arthur Slade

Wednesday, 10 July 2024

Return of the Grudstone Ghosts - Arthur Slade - Canadian Chills Book 1 Reprint Edition

Return of the Grudstone Ghosts

Canadian Chills Book 1 Reprint Edition

Arthur Slade

Shadowpaw Press

ISBN 9781998273003

eISBN 9781998273010

ASIN B0CZJJNVR6

Return of the Grudstone Ghosts - Arthur Slade - Canadian Chills Book 1 Reprint Edition

This book and series are back in print in a new Shadowpaw Press Reprise edition. I am thankful this books are back in print. This book, originally published as a Moose Jaw Mystery, and part of what later became the Canadian Chills Series, is a wonderful example of Canadian storytelling. Arthur Slade has a knack for writing compelling fiction. In this story three close friends attend St. Wolcott School. But on the first day of school Miss Vindez is thrown from the belfry window and things just keep getting stranger after that. Daphne, Nick and Peach must figure out what is going on; it involves old time gangsters, hidden tunnels and a mystery that needs to be solved.

The description of this volume is:

“Terror stalks the halls of St. Wolcott School . . .

When Daphne’s sixth-grade teacher, Miss Vindez, plummets from the belfry of St. Wolcott School, Daphne and her friends Nick and Peach are plunged into a mystery that includes a long-ago fire that left behind twelve dead schoolchildren, tiny ghosts with nowhere to go, and an ancient evil just dying to break through into modern-day Moose Jaw.

Miss Vindez survives her fall, but things just aren’t the same–she’s spouting gibberish, and both Principal Peterka and the school janitor are definitely not themselves at all anymore.

Determined to get to the bottom of what’s going on, Daphne, Nick, and Peach dig up the troubled history of Grudstone, the school that used to stand where St. Wolcott is now. They uncover evidence of a crime so terrible it can hardly be believed. Worse, the terrifying perpetrator of that crime isn’t done yet–he has more horrible plans in mind. And all that stands in his way are three Moose Jaw school kids.”

When I tracked down a previous edition of these books we donated it to our kid’s school library. Now that it is back in print, my son and I am rereading them again together. It was fantastic to reread this book 14 years apart. I enjoyed it even more this second time through.

The story is half history, half humour, and half a tale of friendship and adventure and it is a whole lot of fun. This is an excellent school story wrapped in a mystery filled with history and just enough scare factor for the intended audience.

It is an excellent read and I can easily recommend it!