If you are into the classic ghost story then Chris Priestley’s The Dead of Winter is the one for you.

Michael’s mother has died and he finds himself being sent to Hawton Mere, a moated house surrounded by marshes. He has become the ward of Sir Stephen Clarendon whose life was saved by Michael’s father, and his sister Charlotte. Michael resents this as his father had lost his life saving Sir Stephen. The house is old and along with it appears to be a ghost and strange eery noise, which only Michael appears to be able to see or hear. TO escape the unravelling horrors, Michael finds comfort in the old library.

The library contained more books than I think I had ever seen in one place. I had discovered my enjoyment of reading during my mother’s illness. Before that I had never really understood the appeal – or indeed the purpose – of reading for pleasure, but I now found that I could spend hours with no other diversion than the solitary exercise of reading a book, and by the vehicle of those pages would be transported to faraway lands on fantastic adventures. More and more this love of reading had become a medicine and tonic for my troubled heart and mind.

The easy going style belies the underlying horrors that appear to await Michael. It has echoes of Susan Hill’s Woman in Black – the same isolated location and an apparent malign spirit, which would be a good follow on book if you want to do some more challenging reading along the same theme.