Shadowghast
by Thomas Taylor
Walker Books, 2021
352 pages
Middle-Grade
Years ago, Herbie Lemon washed up on the shores of Eerie-on-Sea with no memory of who he was or where he had come from. There had been a shipwreck, and he was discovered protected in a shipping crate of lemons, earning him his unusual name. He had almost given up on ever learning more about where he came from… until a stage magician visits the town claiming to be his Aunt.
Caliastra has come at an auspicious moment to try her hand at rebooting the local tradition of the Ghastly Night play, returning the annual Halloween event to its former glory on the pier. It is a retelling of the story of Mayor Standing Bigley and the wandering stranger who controlled the magic lamp of the Shadowghast, who could steal people’s shadows and gain complete control over them.
“Who controls the light commands the dark!”
During the planning for the show, Jenny Hanniver, owner of the local bookshop goes missing! It’s another mystery adventure for the Lost and Founder and his best friend Violet!
As magician extraordinaire Calistra, her silent assistants Rictus & Tristo, and their manager Mr. Mummery, take over the derelict theater on the Eerie pier, Mrs. Fossil the local beachcomber and antiques dealer, also disappears! Mrs. Fossil and Dr. Thalassi, who usually put on a smaller version of the Ghastly Night play, had been jealous at first from their artistry apparently being cancelled… but they soon give in to Caliastra’s flattery and her hypnotic magic tricks.
Violet becomes very suspicious of Caliastra and her surprise appearance, and especially her offers of a new life for Herbie. Herbie’s good friend tries to keep him from falling under the prestidigitator’s influence even as Caliastra reveals that she now holds the dragon lamp from the original story of Ghastly Night! It had been recovered from the cold, dark, bottom of the sea… by none other than Sebastian Eels! Sebastian may be dead, but what drove Caliastra to hunt down and obtain his treasures?
When the two adventurers observe Mr. Mummery sneaking into Eels’ boarded up house, they spy on him to find a secret chamber filled with souvenirs from the town’s various mysteries. Despite Caliastra’s claims of welcoming Herbie as family, Mummery and his mime henchmen turn hostile and chase Herbie and Violet into the caverns below Eerie-on-Sea known as the Netherways! Wait… was that Jenny they saw wandering the caves in search of Eerie’s “deepest secret”?
The question remains, what is Caliastra really after? Why steal the lamp from Sebastian Eels’ collection and what is it Herbie can do for her? Why was there an actual lemon in Eels’ mystery cubby labelled “Herbert Lemon”, and what has Herbie got to do with Eerie-on-Sea’s greatest secret?
Halloween night descends. The stage show begins. Steam rises through the audience… and the Shadowghast appears to herd the collected shadows of the audience, nearly all of Eerie-on-Sea, as Caliastra performs the magical play!
The third book of the Lost and Founders series following Malamander and Gargantis keeps pace with the rest of the series without a sign of letting up. We see Clermit (the clockwork hermit crab,) a favorite character of mine, and Erwin the talking cat saves the day more than once. I can’t overstate how well written these suspenseful books are.
You don’t have to start with the first book to enjoy this chapter in Herbie and Violet’s monstrous mystery solving, but wherever you start, I guarantee you will want to go back and devour the rest of the series!
