Following on from my spooky review of Mallory Vayle last week, I’m moving on to another UK middle-grade tale for the witching season. The Cinderman is the first “Spooksmiths Investigate” novel and features two twins tracking down the disturbed spirits from the family funeral home. Expect daring do, sibling bickering, and a whole host of incorporeal shenanigans.
What Is Spooksmiths Investigate: The Cinderman?
Our story is narrated by Indigo, one half of a pair of twins, Indigo and Rusty Smith. The Smith’s live in the family home, which is attached to the family business; a funeral directors. One day Indigo accidentally discovers a secret passage in the house leading to a dusty cellar. The cellar is filled with old urns. Indigo knocks one over, the resulting ash cloud eddies unnaturally before settling down. Indigo, discomfited, escapes back to the main part of the house. Nothing happens, life returns to normal, and she goes to hang out with friends.
But it is a beginning.
Overnight, everybody in the village, apart from Indigo and Rusty, is taken control of by a strange force. After a narrow escape at school, Indigo and Rusty, try to work out what is going on. This leads them to discover the ghost of their recently deceased grandfather. He tells them that their true surname is “Spooksmith.” The twins can see the world beyond the grave. It is a Spooksmith’s job to help lay the dead to rest. Except when they can’t. Some spirits are too disturbed to pass into the afterlife; they’ll cause havoc if allowed to roam free.
The secret cellar is a store of all the malevolent ghosts that plagued the twin’s hometown. Now one of the ghosts is out, set free when Indigo knocked his urn over. Unless she and Rusty can work out how to stop the Cinderman from wreaking his revenge, the whole town will be plunged beneath a mountain of ash. All their friends and family will be cut off from them, forever. To stop the Cinderman they’ll need to visit the old historical sites of their home town, enlisting the help of restless spirits. Can the pair work out what motivates the Cinderman, and lay his troubled soul to rest?
Why Read Spooksmiths Investigate: The Cinderman?
This is a great children’s ghost story that extolls the benefits of strong family and friendships. Alex Atkinson sets a good pace and the love/not-quite-hate, relationship between the twins is expertly handled. It’s both funny and touching, giving the story a solid central spine around which everything else is built. The lore-building in the novel is excellent; the history of the besieged down, the lives of its deceased denizens, and the powers (or lack thereof) of the Spooksmiths are all well drawn. Atkinson creates Indigo and Rusty a set of rules, and they play within them throughout the novel. There is no convenient breaking of the rules for plot expediency here!
The overall result is a novel with a great story and believable empathetic characters, both dead and alive. There are some genuinely spooky bits, but also some moving sections exploring grief and the power of family relationships. Spooksmith’s Investigate: The Cinderman has all the hallmarks of a classic ghost story, with modern storytelling sensibilities. I loved it.
If you would like to pick up a copy of Spooksmith’s Investigate: The Cinderman you can do so here, in the US, and here, in the UK. (Affiliate Links)
If you enjoyed this review, check out my other book reviews, here.
I received a copy of this book in order to write this review.
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