The Spook's Secret

 

Image credit: PicClick UK

Still wrapped up in the world of children’s horror fantasy, this week saw me power through the third instalment in Joseph Delaney’s Wardstone Chronicles: The Spook’s Secret. 

Thomas Ward is fast and successfully making it through his first year as an apprentice Spook, but if anything things are getting harder rather than easier. Upon preparing to move to the Spook’s Winter house in Anglezarke, a mysterious hooded figure comes to visit Thomas’ master with what is undeniably some sort of threat. Thomas learns that the visitor is a former, failed apprentice with an unhealthy grudge against the Spook and a penchant for necromancy. As soon as they settle in at Anglezarke, even more of the Spook’s secrets start coming to light. But will they be able to settle these scores before it’s too late?

It’s the unwritten rule of the literary universe that the third book in series, particularly children’s series, is the one that is more about the characters and building up their stories rather than the adventure and quest narrative aspect. And The Spook’s Secret is no exception. The world not only gets colder and darker because it’s Winter, but because we get to learn more about the inner, emotional turmoils of the characters: namely the Spook. 

Delaney does a very clever thing in subtly pulling apart the image of authority that the Spook has had up to this point and replacing it with a real and relatable image: that of a confused person torn between right and wrong. Giving kids the lesson that even grownups don’t always have the answers, The Spook’s Secret sees quite a lot of drama when the tables turn on the good guys and there are a number of scenarios where escape seems impossible. While establishing a great realism and flawed sense to his characters, Delaney expertly amps up the tension and suspense in the book’s more dramatic scenes, continuing to make it a real page turner and avoiding the trap of losing its original sense of adventure. Most readers tend to give up on series around book three, but with this one there is no danger of that!

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There’s a wonderful sense of growth in both the characters of Thomas and the Spook, making the world and its inhabitants richer, deeper, and more intriguing. The Spook’s Secret successfully continues the original and exciting horror-adventure vibe of the series whilst simultaneously making Delaney’s world bigger and more fascinating. I’ll be diving right into the next one for sure!

Author: Joseph Delaney, 2006

Published: Bodley Head (Great Britain), an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, 2006.

Chronology: The Spook’s Secret is the third book in Delaney’s The Wardstone Chronicles series.