The Wardstone Chronicles #3: The Spook's Secret

Winter's abound and let me present before you all my views of The Wardstone Chronicles #3 The Spook's Secret by Joseph Delaney.

Here is the summary of the book:

It's going to be a long, hard, cruel winter. And there couldn't be a worse place to spend it than up on Anglezarke. Thomas Ward is the apprentice for the local Spook, who captures witches and drives away ghosts. As the weather gets colder and the nights draw in, the Spook receives an unexpected visitor. Tom doesn't know who the stranger is or what he wants, but the Spook suddenly decides it's time to travel to his winter house, Anglezarke. Tom has heard it will be a bleak, forbidding place, and that menacing creatures are starting to stir somewhere on the moors nearby. Can anything prepare Tom for what he finds there? What if the rumors about the evil beast called the Golgoth are true? And how much danger will Tom be in if the secrets the Spook has been trying to hide from the world are revealed?

Winter is here and its getting darker and darker everyday. A harsh winter is about to come and Tom and the Spook set out for the winter house of Mr. Gregory in Anglezarke - which is literally a winter house. Gone is the comfortable warmth of the Spook's house in Chipenden. Tom must not only adept to the cold dampness of the Spook's winter house and all the spookiness that comes with it.

So yes in The Spook's Secret we see Tom and the Spook heading out to Anglezarke for the winter after the Spook sees an unexpected visitor. But why go to a cold and less inviting place then Chipenden when you should be staying warm in the winters....Spook's business of course. What else could it be! Arriving in the Winter home, Tom learns of the Spook's secret. The Lamia Witch Meg, his master's old love was not put in a pit as she should have been. Instead the Spook has been keeping her memories surpressed, despite his own advice of girls being a distraction and the dangers of keeping Meg out of a pit. And what of the looming dangers of the rising of Golgoth, the evil winter lord - not a pretty, cosy winter if you ask me.

And as Tom goes deeper into the trade of a Spook, he must not only think clearly but also decide who he should trust.

The story here as in the previous two is well told. Mr. Delaney's description have an effect of sending you to the edge of your seats with every new twist and turns as we come across them in the story. The Spook's Secret is well meaning enough with the title, for this book peels more layers to the Spook's gruff exterior. It shows us the past and every decisions behind the Spook we see in this book. It shows us that he is not as indifferent as he always seems and makes us appreciate his character even more. As for Tom - well aside from more knowledge of the Spook's trade sadly we don't really see anything new with him - for we see him making the same mistakes again; you'd think that he'd have learned from his mistakes by now (him being around 13 years old might explain). A little (teeny-tiny one) is seen as improvement but not quite.

But here we don't see the actually villain of interest appear until the very end. Golgoth maybe a powerful godly spirit but being at the beck and call of humans is kinda weird (maybe understood also since it is the human prayers and faith that keeps that particular god powerful). But a well written and spookiness inducing work by Mr. Delaney.