The Hollow Boy

The Hollow Boy
by Jonathan Stroud
Recommended Ages: 12+

The third "Lockwood & Co." adventure is the creepiest yet, with London's Chelsea area overrun by ghosts in a paranormal outbreak that one observer describes as "like the end of the world." Independent ghostbusters Lockwood, George and Lucy - joined by a new assistant named Holly, about whom Lucy has some challenging feelings - are at first left out of the all-hands-on-deck investigation. Even as civilization crumbles around them, and in spite of their recent successes, the agency struggles to get any attention from paranormal regulator DEPRAC, except the kind that makes them feel like naughty school children lined up in front of teacher's desk. So they continue about their regular cases, including cracking a series of missing-persons cases that all connect with a particularly haunted boarding house, and exorcising a posh Hanover Square mansion where bloody footprints appear on the staircase every night.

While George wracks his brains, looking for a focal point of the outbreak, Lucy goes against Lockwood's orders and explores her ability to communicate with the dead. Her first experiment turns out all right, when she successfully clears up a haunting without having to destroy the restless spirit, simply by finding out what was troubling it. Later, she puts the whole team in jeopardy when a killer ghost almost tricks her into getting ghost-touched, which would be bad. But when Lockwood & Co., joined by a team of agents from a competing firm, spend a night in London's most haunted department store, Lucy's special knack combines with her emotional conflict to conjure up a night of freak-out-worthy supernatural phenomena. I'm not just saying that. To the extent a book has ever caused my ordinarily wavy, and increasingly thin, hair to stand on end, this book did it. It isn't quite the scariest book I've ever read; I still, for example, haven't chucked a book farther, out of sheer fright, than Stephen King's The Shining. But it's a good exercise for the cardiovascular system, with shock value and suspense and good old fashioned heebie-jeebies. Plus, it also serves up laughs, a touch of romance and some legit, large-scale plot and character development. Readers who, like me, have to wait for their library system to cough up the next installment in the series will be most impatient after the hook this book sets at the end.

Stroud is also the author, etc., etc. — I've said it all before — except this part: Book 4 of this five-book series is The Creeping Shadow.

The Night Gardener

The Night Gardener
by Jonathan Auxier
Recommended Ages: 12+

After The Whispering Skull, this was only the second book by an author named Jonathan about an object that offers people their heart's desire and then kills them, that I read in a single weekend. The legend of the Night Gardener, told by an old storyteller to the pair of Irish siblings at the center of this book, is a bit magical and a bit sad. The reality, as Molly and Kip experience it, is a good deal more terrifying. Desperation leads the pair to enter the service of a financially troubled family that lives in a place called the sourwoods, which folks in the neighborhood consider to be cursed. Their home is a mansion with a huge, sinister tree growing out of one wall, tended by a mysterious, top-hat-wearing figure who roams the house at night, leaving muddy footprints.

Something is preying on the minds and bodies of the Windsor family, and soon it starts to work on Molly, too. The house, or perhaps the tree, or perhaps it is the night man, gives each member of the household something that they would never be without, keeping them effectively caught in its trap while the life drains out of them. It's an evil thing that is hard to resist and even harder to destroy. Saving the family, if they can be saved, depends largely on a lame little boy learning to stand on his own, without magic, without a crutch, and perhaps even without being able to rely on his sister.

Besides being a legit chiller, this book also opens a view on the period of Ireland's Great Hunger (1845-49) and the prejudiced attitudes and behavior of the English toward the Irish during that desperate time. It draws a touching sketch of courage, family love, and perhaps on a between-the-lines level, the horror of being trapped by a heart's desire that is killing you - such as, for instance, an addiction. It is scary in a folkloric way, which I think outscares even a present-day ghost story like Jonathan Stroud's "Lockwood & Co." thrillers. With even more going on than this brief synopsis can hint at, it's a fully satisfying story for young readers that, believe me, can give a grown-up the heebie-jeebies.

Auxier is the author of two delightful "Peter Nimble Adventures" - Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes and Sophie Quire and the Last Storyguard. His next book, due to be released in September 2018, is Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster.

The Whispering Skull

The Whispering Skull
by Jonathan Stroud
Recommended Ages: 12+

In this second ghostly "Lockwood & Co." novel, teen paranormal investigators Anthony Lockwood, Lucy Carlyle and George Cubbins face down another hair-raising haunting while searching for a deadly artifact that has been stolen from a grave they helped dig up. The bone-mirror, created by the notorious Dr. Bickerstaff, has been interred with his bones in an iron coffin that turns up where no one expected to find it. The story of the doctor's death is bad enough. His corpse is nasty. His ghost is full of a powerful menace. But the worst thing is the mirror. George gets only a glimpse of it, and it preys on his mind. Lucy hears the ghost urging them to look in the mirror. As the team soon learns, anyone who does look, dies.

Naturally, as soon as the ghost is laid to rest and the team returns home, someone swipes the mirror. Hired by DEPRAC (the government agency that oversees paranormal agencies), put in direct competition with a snotty team from the Fittes Agency, Lockwood & Co. race to solve the crime. But the mystery deepens as simple theft turns into multiple murders. Involved in the case are a class of haunted-artifact scavengers called relic-men, a brutal black marketeer in forbidden artifacts, and (in case you thought I forgot) a whispering skull, which would be more accurately be described as a sneaky, sarcastic, evil skull trapped with the ghost of its owner in a silver-glass jar. It talks to Lucy, which no ghost has done to any psychic since the great Marissa Fittes. Having it tag along on the trio's investigation may prove helpful, or the skull may try to get them all killed as they explore yet another creepy old house charged with deadly spiritual energy, then track a killer to his lair for an even more dangerous and terrifying confrontation.

Fun character interplay, snappy dialogue, humor, and bone-chilling spookiness - I mean, really, don't read this book at bedtime - are all part of the proven "Lockwood & Co." formula, from the author of the "Bartimaeus" quartet and several other books I have enjoyed. The series continues with The Hollow Boy and, to date, two more.

Unsub

Unsub
by Meg Gardiner
Recommended Ages: 14+

Caitlin Hendrix is a young Bay Area narcotics cop when she gets a chance to join the homicide squad. The reason for her sudden career advancement is objectively gruesome and personally disturbing at the same time. A serial killer, nicknamed the Prophet by the press but calling himself Mercury, has returned after an unexplained 20-year hiatus after driving Caitlin's homicide detective father insane. Mack Hendrix actually attempted suicide after watching a couple being burned to death and his partner shot dead without being able to save them. To catch the resumed killer, or perhaps his copycat, the cops are relying on Caitlin to get through to her still disturbed dad and get him to open up about clues that may not be in the case files. Soon enough, however, she finds the chase threatening her own mental stability as the killer zeroes in on her, taunting her publicly and personally as his crimes swell in a crescendo of terror.

I would be hard put to provide any further synopsis without spoiling some of the chilling surprises in this book. It sketches a dark, scary, often suspenseful descent into psychological torment and evil, with fiendish roots probing deep into western culture. It's a smart, visceral thriller that puts its protagonist on a tight spot between professional duty and concern for the people she cares about most. It builds inevitably to a climactic struggle that doesn't stop being scary even after the peril is past.

Meg Gardiner is the Edgar Award-winning author of Ransom River, The Shadow Tracer, Phantom Instinct, five "Evan Delaney" thrillers (China Lake etc.), four "Jo Beckett" thrillers (The Dirty Secrets Club etc.), and a sequel to this novel, Into the Black Nowhere, in which Caitlin returns as an FBI profiler.

Stronger

Stronger
by Jeff Bauman with Bret Witter
Recommended Ages: 13+

In case you weren't following the news five years ago, and if you also missed the movie Patriots Day, Jeff Bauman was this guy who was standing near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 when a couple of pressure cookers loaded with explosives, nails and ball bearings detonated in the crowd, killing three people and wounding more than 200 others.

A minute before the blast, Bauman looked into the eyes (or at least, the sunglasses) of one of the Tsarnaev brothers, who set the backpack bombs. A minute after the blast, he was the central figure in an iconic photo, depicting three people rushing a man on a wheelchair to an ambulance for lifesaving treatment. Bauman was the man on the wheelchair, both his legs blown off above the knee. This book is the story of the first few weeks of his recovery, when Bauman unwittingly became an inspiration to millions of people. His survival and rapid recovery from grievous injuries, his adaptation to the lifestyle of a four-joint amputee, his instant fame as an example of "Boston Strong" and an eyewitness whose sharp memory of the bombing helped police catch the bad guys faster, the impact of his injury on his family and friends, and some of the not-so-glorious moments in his recovery are the raw material of an emotionally gripping, true-to-life story.

It's a fast read that makes sense of a complex story. I was frequently moved by it, and I mean, choked up and sniffly, and occasionally a little indignant at some of the crap a guy has to put up with even with as good a reason for getting a break as Jeff. And though the story is Jeff's, I take it the effectiveness of the writing is partly down to co-author "with Bret Witter." If I may be permitted the liberty to call him by his first name, With is frequently listed as an author on the cover of such books as Pure Heart: A Spirited Tale of Grace, Grit, and Whiskey by Troy Ball, Santa Is Real by Charles Edward Hall, A Golden Voice by Ted Williams, Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron, The Monuments Men by Robert Edsel, Until I Say Goodbye: My Year of Living with Joy by Susan Spencer-Wendel, Until Tuesday: A Wounded Warrior and the Golden Retriever Who Saved Him by Luis Carlos Montalván, a couple of "Tom Locke novels" with Sean McFate (Shadow War, Deep Black) on which With doesn't even get front-cover billing, and various sequels and children's-book spinoffs of the above. I guess helping other people get their stories out is what he does.

I'm usually not keen on books co-authored by somebody named With, but I made a rare exception here because I already knew some of the story (from the fictionalized movie account), and I correctly guessed that it would "get me right here." I wish I had any idea how much credit should go to each of this book's authors for its overall effectiveness. When With drops that first name of his and starts publishing books "by Bret Witter," I'll be interested in seeing what he can do.

Latest New Hymns

Here are the fruits of my latest efforts in hymn writing - including the last of the hymns I had pre-planned before a marathon brainstorming session last night, during which I completely reorganized the manuscript of my projected book with working title Edifying Hymns. It's a relief to have a lot more ambitious hymns planned - and experience has taught me that preparation is the secret to being a productive writer. For these hymns I recycled a tune that I wrote last year for a "Seven Deadly Sins Hymn," the alternate tunes that I chose for a couple other hymns, and a rhythmically altered version of a historic Easter hymn that I thought would be just right for a song about perceiving beauty beneath the surface. (The rhythmic version of HERZLICH...ERFREUEN is in the Lutheran Book of Worship and Lutheran Worship; a much boringer isometric version is in the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book; my version kind of splits the difference, hopefully making the tune more approachable without sapping its energy.) Constructive feedback is welcome.

257. For Unbelieving Loved Ones
Tune: COUILLARD by R. D. Fish, 2017

Zeal for Your house consumed You;
Love of the sinner doomed You,
O Christ, who died to save us:
No strife or hatred fearing,
God’s wrath, man’s judgment bearing,
Peace passing ken You gave us.

With just such zeal, though tender
And frail, we pray: engender
The faith to grasp Your promise
In our dear ones who grumble
Against Your word, who stumble,
Or scoff like doubting Thomas.

Indeed, Lord, You did warn us
Our flesh and blood would scorn us,
A sword our house dividing.
And yet, behold, we love them:
While time remains, then, move them,
Your Spirit’s gift providing.

If, Lord, despite our closeness,
Our arguments’ verboseness
And loudness fail to win them,
Then send a voice more distant,
Yet with life’s way consistent,
From hell’s broad road to spin them.

Remind us, in our anguish
O’er friends whose spirits languish
In chains of death while living:
It lies not in our power,
But in the word You, Sower,
As living seed are giving.

Your word, though out of season,
Yet puts to shame man’s reason,
Breaks through his heart’s resistance,
Recalls to life the buried,
Protects the demon-harried,
Gives what-is-not existence.

Therefore we leave them, trusting
In Your rich mercy, lusting,
Like us, for their salvation.
Hasten Your will unfailing;
The night grows pallid, hailing
Your dawning revelation.

258. Hymn for Joy
Tune: SONG 22 by Orlando Gibbons, 1583

In childhood, Jesus, give Your children joy,
For even You were once a little boy;
So we may join in ev’ry wholesome game,
Cheered by the thought You might have done the same.

In daily toil, give grown-up Christians joy,
Lest burdens chafe and poverty annoy;
For even You once plied the lathe and plane,
Took pleasure in the panel’s burl and grain.

When work is done, give aging Christians joy
That neither pain nor weakness can destroy;
For even You went feebly to Your death,
And for our life gave up Your final breath.

And when at last we sleep, as once You slept,
Let our clay rest, like Yours, for that day kept
When we awake, and perfectly employ
Pure hearts and tongues to worship You with joy.

259. Hymn for Beauty
Tune: HERZLICH TUT MICH ERFREUEN from J. Walther’s Geistlicher Berckreyen, Wittenberg, 1552, alt.

Lord, give us eyes for beauty,
Wherever it may be,
And hearts that feel a duty
From sordid filth to flee.
Let cheap and empty glitter
Crowd no good thing aside;
Nor let our hearts grow bitter
At private taste denied.

Lord, give us minds to measure
The beauties you design;
Give gentle hands to treasure
The delicate and fine;
Ears with apprecation
Of skillful, lovely lays;
Tongues tuned to the vibration
That best becomes Your praise.

Give makers and performers
Awe of Your holy throne,
Though they be heaven-stormers
Or trained on earth alone.
Lord, bless our arts with fitness,
Through Your ascended Son,
To bear the Spirit’s witness
That God with Man is one.

With beauty You surround us
To draw us nigh to You;
Its strong proportions ground us
In what is sure and true.
Thereby our hope has sounded
Heights, depths no eye has seen,
Led on to joy unbounded,
To beauties evergreen.

260. For Persecuted Christians
Tune: UNDE ET MEMORES by William H. Monk, 1823-89

Embrace, O Christ, with Your protecting arm
The saints who suffer shame or pain or need
For Your name’s sake: which neither flame can harm
Nor blade can vanquish. Though our bodies bleed,
Though devils all the world like locusts swarm,
Our harvest is secure through Mary’s Seed.

Receive our prayer, O Christ, for them who face
The inquisition of this troublous age:
Convict them, while they answer for Your grace,
Of liberty untouched by tyrant’s rage.
Let them, if called upon, complete their race
Cheered by the promise of the martyr’s wage.

Deliver them from doubt, O Christ, from fear,
Whom You have counted worthy to partake
With You of cross and death. Their groaning hear;
Hear, too, the good confession that they make.
Then hasten in Your glory to appear,
Your witnesses at rest, at last, to wake.

The Gravedigger's Cottage

The Gravedigger's Cottage
by Chris Lynch
Recommended Ages: 12+

Sylvia, her little brother Walter, and their twice-widowed dad have already moved into a quaint cottage by the sea before they realize that a local tradition holds that the owner of the so-called Gravedigger's Cottage has a deep connection with death. Sylvia won't stand for that nonsense, though she does have a history of burying beloved pets in the yard, not to mention losing two moms. She and Walter only really get worried when their dad takes a leave of absence from work and starts obsessing about the house - saying he needs to seal up all the leaks. Sylvia likes the cottage the way it is. She likes her dad the way he was. She depends on her family's rituals to get along. She doesn't know quite how to deal with a dad who seems to be getting lost.

This is a charming, heartwarming little tale with some funny bits, some appealing characters, and a light touch of spooky mystery. The chapters alternate between the family's present-day experiences and Sylvia's memories of all the pets (not to mention moms) the family has lost. My one criticism of this book would be that it seems to make a sharp turn, partway through, from being one kind of story to being another. Okay, I'll add a second criticism, which is that it passes rather lightly over what I took to be a mental-health-related issue, which maybe could have been handled more honestly and thoroughly. I sensed that the author let himself out of this book by a side door when it started to get too hard. Judging by the type of material he is known for writing, I find that a little surprising.

This is my first encounter with the work of Chris Lynch. Nevertheless he is a very prolific author for young adults, with almost 50 books so far in a career going back to 1993. They include series about warfare (Vietnam and World War II), date rape, misogyny, growing up overweight, growing up gay in a tough neighborhood, growing up in a future world where animals can talk to people (I haven't read Cyberia, etc., so I'm not sure how accurate that description is). A lot of his stand-alone novels seem to involve sports and other school activities, or issues relating to troubled youth. Their titles include Johnny Chesthair, Inexcusable, Shadowboxer, Who the Man, The Big Game of Everything, Angry Young Man, and Little Blue Lies.