Shadowghast

Shadowghast is the third entry in Thomas Taylor's late elementary-middle school series, 'Legends of Eerie-on-Sea'. During the summer, the town is 'Cheerie-on-Sea,' a happy tourist trap. The rest of the year the first two letters fall off the sign and the place truly becomes eerie. It's late October now and the time for Ghastly Night, the local version of Halloween, is near.

Our young amnesiac hero, Herbie Lemon, the current Lost-and-Founder for the town's Grand Nautilus Hotel, is not having a good morning when he first sees famed stage magician, Caliastra, and her entourage at the hotel. As we know from the first two books, hotel manager Mr. Godfrey Mollusc has a grudge against Herbie. Chapter two tells us how low Mollusc is willing to show more go in the matter of owner Lady Kraken's birthday breakfast.

Caliastra has some surprising news for Herbie. She claims to be his aunt, here to whisk him off to be reared and trained as her assistant -- after she puts on a special show for Ghastly Night. Herbie finds this news a little too good to be true, but Caliastra offers him proof in an unusual way.

In the meantime, cautious Herbie's best friend, the intrepid and intelligent Violet Parma, needs him to find someone lost. Violet is suspicious of Caliastra, which annoys Herbie. Violet is annoyed that Herbie doesn't see Caliastra as she does, and much more annoyed that Herbie is doing what the magician wants instead of helping her. Neither of them like Caliastra's Mr. Mummery, although mimes Rictus and Tristo are interesting.

The legend of the Shadowghast is told to the children through a nicely down shadow play by Dr. Thalassi, who owns the Eerie Museum. Music is provided by local beachcomber, Mrs. Wendy Fossil. (Mrs. Fossil also makes 'manglewicks,' candles and holders that are supposed to protect their owners from the Shadowghast. Dr. Thalassi doesn't know everything about what happened that first Ghastly Night. It was more ghastly than he ever imagined.

Someone is searching the boarded-up house of the late, unlamented writer and thoroughgoing villain, Mr. Sebastian Eels. Violet is certain that mystery is tied up with her own. With the help of Clermit, the clockwork crab introduced in book two, Herbie and Violet investigate. I really like the feature of the house that they learn about.

Erwin the talking cat, as well as the mermonkey device in the Eerie Book Dispensary, are also of assistance. (I think Herbie should really take Violet's advice and read the book the mermonkey found for him. He'll probably want to kick himself for not opening it sooner if he ever does.)

The abandoned town theater makes an excellent scene for the climax, although not nearly as frightening as another town feature we learn about in this book.

Shadowghast offers a menace chilling enough for an adult novel. Don't worry if you're older than the intended audience. There's plenty here to be enjoyed by those of us who like to feel the creeps and be scared in a fictional setting!

Sadly, because mine is an advance reading copy for review purposes, Tom Booth's illustrations range from 'TK' [to come], roughs, and finished work. Luckily, the first illustration of Caliastra is finished. She looks like a femme fatale, reminding me a little of Natasha Fatale from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons. show less

Shadowghast is a fitting continuation of the Eerie-on-Sea series. Thomas Taylor brings back the witty chills of the first two books as we follow lovable protagonists Herbert Lemon and Violet Parma while they try to uncover the secret of the Shadowghast lantern as their fellow townspeople disappear all around them. This is such a fun middle grade adventure that I’d recommend for the young and young at heart.

Thanks so much to Walker Books US and LibraryThing for sending this copy for review.

I think this might be the best Eerie-On-Sea mystery yet! It had the best pacing and was action packed! I will admit that Gargantua was not my favorite book, so I was worried about this one, but I didn't need to! Herbie and Violet were in fine form, and are a dynamic duo, that I wish I could join and make a terrific threesome. If there are more books to come I will be keeping my eye out for them!

If you like the first three you'll probably like this one. Might be getting just a bit stale.

Herbert Lemon is the official “Lost-and-Founder” in the town of Eerie-on-Sea. In Shadowghast, third in a series by author Thomas Taylor, Herbert and his best friend Violet investigate mysterious disappearances while the town prepares to observe its annual Ghastly Night. The book will be published in September 2021 by Walker Books US, and I received an advance copy through LibraryThing Early Reviewers. View my video review at https://youtu.be/hmeII53mNhg

My review of this book can be found on my YouTube Vlog at:

https://youtu.be/4ApHnjRNkZA

Enjoy!