Ready To Be Spooked Out?

Looking for a mysterious, spine-chilling spooky read?

Well, even if you’re no fan of this genre, or have just begun to be interested in reading books to spend your lazy summer, here are four books for you, ranging from the thinnest to the thicker ones, but each with the promise of keeping you on the edge of your seat, in their own separate ways.

1. The Curse of the Broken Step – Bubbles Sabharwal & Anjali Raghbeer – Scholastic India Pvt. Ltd.

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Four young detectives find themselves at the target of a vicious gang of criminals when, on a school trip to the Purana Qila in Delhi, they become intrigued by an American tourist intent on going into a supposedly haunted and out-of-bounds area of the Qila where four hundred years ago Humayun died.

Smelling a rat in the American’s story, and discovering clues from various sources that seem to be pulling them into the midst of the matter, the ‘Google Gang’ decide to investigate and end up as witnesses to a possible murder.

On top of it all is the uncanny yogi with weird supernatural powers that makes him able to appear and disappear in the blink of an eye, read their minds and turn their friends into their foes.

Will the four teens be able to solve a mystery bigger and deeper than they had imagined?
All of 120 pages, this story will keep you hooked until the end.

2. Death under the Deodars – Ruskin Bond – Penguin Random House India

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The book is a collection of eight murder-mystery stories by my all-time favourite author, Ruskin Bond.

Set in the Mussoorie of a few decades ago, all stories revolve around a central character, Miss Ripley-Bean, the seventy-year old permanent resident of the old Royal Hotel. Her father had been the owner of the Hotel and had sold it to the current owner, middle-aged Nandu’s father on the condition that his daughter could live there for life.

Thus, brought up in and around the old hill station, with its folklores and accounts of bizarre events throughout the years, the elderly lady now recounts her past experiences and adventures to any travellers at the Hotel who would listen.

She also has a knack for attracting mysteries (and killers, too) and narrowly escapes becoming a victim herself quite a few times. As a wise, friendly old woman, she also becomes a close confidante for many of the troubled guests at the Hotel, in the process, learning things that may well not be known to any other person alive.

Spanning a length of 189 pages, the book’s easy language and clear narration, with its cunning twists and turns will keep one reading all night!

3. Friends for Life – Andrew Norriss – David Fickling Books, Oxford, published by arrangement by Scholastic Inc.

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This is a ghost story unlike the others in this list.
It all begins when a boy meets a girl. Only, the girl is dead. And he is the one and only person who can see her.

Until they meet Andi. And Roland. The two middle school students the same age as Francis and Jessica who had almost given up on making any friends. And, possibly, on life.

But with Francis and his dead companion, they develop a strong albeit unusual friendship as they try to discover why Jessica, who died a year ago, is still unable to move on.

Although Francis is not afraid of a ghost, inviting her to his home and more or less spending more than twelve hours a day with her, Jessica realizes there is indeed something that bothers him more than he lets on.

Despite calling himself Mr. Fearless, the one thing that he is afraid of is other people’s opinions of his hobby of fashion designing.

Hard-covered and 231 pages long, this ghost story might not make the hair on your arm stand on end, but it would definitely make you wonder a few things about the worth of life. And true friends. Even if they’re only a ghost.

4. Marco’s Pendulum – Thom Madley – Usborne Publishing Ltd.

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Marco’s parents are almost divorced when his father takes him to Glastonbury to spend his summer with his maternal grandparents, the relatives he has never seen once in his thirteen years on Earth. His mother always hinted at a rift in the family before even her marriage, but said nothing more about them than that they were ‘weird’.

Rosa’s parents have newly shifted to a flat in Glastonbury, above an old, derelict shop. Her father, a former policeman now on the path to becoming a church-ordained vicar, is strictly opposed to the ‘hippies’ of the town, the people who believe that the Tor, the mighty hill at the centre of Glastonbury, is a source of powerful magic.

Or is this dark magic, as Rosa’s father, and half the town, believes?
Rosa hears weird noises from the locked-up shop below at night, and sees the apparition of a ghostly monk in her bedroom wall; Marco is gifted a pendulum by Woolly, his ‘hippy’ grandfather, and taught the ancient art of dowsing, which results in him having an experience that convinces the adults to send him back before it becomes too dangerous for him.

But is the tension in the town only due to its religious history, or is there a deeper conspiracy afoot?

Gear up to be part of an unforgettable adventure with Marco and Rosa in this 426-page read. Trust me, it’s totally worth your time!

Other suggestions welcome too! Hope you have a great time reading the above books, selected from my own little library at home. Oh, and don’t miss out on the adventure-mystery books I’ve authored, too! Find them on Amazon when you type in Shruti Sinha. :)

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