Greenglass House

The Pines live in an inn, a legendary old smugglers' inn on the coast called Greenglass House. It is named for several beautiful, antique stained glass windows, one on each of the inn's five floors, in fact. Anyone can stay there, not just smugglers, but smugglers are frequent guests. The inn is accessible by road from town but most traffic to the inn comes from the river. After docking, a guest must climb aboard a cable car, ring a bell that is heard in the inn, and wait while the cable car is slowly winched up the cliffside for one hundred yards to the inn.

The Pines consist of 12-year-old Milo and his mom and dad. On the first evening of his winter break, Milo and his parents are surprised to hear the bell ring from the cable car.

A guest has arrived, now, on the coldest, iciest night of the year!

Shockingly, the bell rings three more times that night, as a cast of interesting and unusual characters assembles in this manor house that is completely isolated by the winter storm. Each of the guests seems to have a connection to the house and to some of the other guests, who all seem to be pulled to the inn by a mysterious compulsion.

Mrs Pine calls for back-up, so Mrs Caraway comes out from the village of Nagspeake to help with the cooking, bringing her daughter, Meddy, to stay too. Soon, Milo and Meddy are learning about their characters in a role-playing game and investigating Greenglass House's attic (where they are unexpectedly locked in).  They are poring over a mysterious map they've found, and sneaking up and down the stairs (and the fire escape) trying to locate the guests' seemingly worthless items that have disappeared overnight. The guests and the family gather each evening in the living room to entertain each other with legends and tales of bygone times, many of the stories mysteriously sharing some kind of connection to the history of the house.

The characters in this book are so enjoyable.

Milo's family, while small, is loving and respectful to each other. Milo was adopted when he was just a baby and this is mentioned several times throughout the story. He often wonders about his birth family, understandably, while still being grateful for his own loving, adoptive family. He has touches of OCD.

What a nice surprise it is to enjoy a children's mystery so much! This is a quintessential “locked door mystery,” popularized by Agatha Christie and her And Then There Were None in 1939. The setting is atmospheric and fascinating, just spooky enough to draw you in but not scare too much. The puzzle, based on legends of the past, is interesting and the denouement, surprising. It might put your student in mind of The Westing Game, if they've read that classic mystery.

I advise you to curl up this winter, while the storm rages outside, and get lost in Nagspeake among the smugglers' legends.

CONTENT CONSIDERATIONS

Ghost stories are told, there is a (non-scary) ghost character revealed toward the very end.

In one of the legends Milo is reading, a cat's bones are used as a sort of a spell, to ward off danger.

Characters use a role-playing game in their detective search There is a “love triangle” alluded to among three of the guests, nothing graphic