The Castle on Deadman's Island - Softcover

Parkinson, Curtis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0887768938 ISBN 13: 9780887768934

Publisher: Tundra Books, 2009

Synopsis

A death, a curse, a ghost, nasty people . . . an excellent new mystery!

Intrigue. An eccentric millionaire. A woman’s disappearance. A child’s skeleton. A ghost. A towering castle. A secret tunnel. All of these and more make up this compelling new mystery novel by award-winning author Curtis Parkinson.

When the owner of the castle on Deadman’s Island dies, his bizarre will leaves it to three of his friends who hate each other. Dark schemes follow, and the curse of the castle, entrenched forever in local lore, strikes again.

Neil, Graham, and Crescent, the main characters from Death in Kingsport, become involved when Graham’s Aunt Henrietta, who is bequeathed one-third ownership of the castle, mysteriously disappears.

Has she gone on a trip, as some insist, or is there more to the story? Graham, with a sense of foreboding and the help of his friends, is determined to find out before it’s too late.

About this title

About the Author

Curtis Parkinson grew up in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated from Queen’s University and worked as a chemical engineer for many years. Then he moved to the Caribbean to live on a sailboat and write. As he says, “Many rejections later, the cat fell off the boat one night, and this story became my first published work, a picture book.” Two more picture books and several short stories followed. Storm-Blast, his first novel, set in the Caribbean, was nominated for the Red Cedar Award, as was his next book, Sea Chase, which was also nominated for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Juvenile Crime. Curtis’s third novel, Domenic’s War, set in Italy during WWII, was nominated for a Silver Birch Award and has been translated into Italian. A mystery novel, Death in Kingsport, followed. It takes place in a small town where nothing is as it seems.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6–9—The castle on Deadman's Island is seemingly cursed; when it opened in the early 20th century, a guest drowned. Then, throughout the years, a string of unexplained deaths and disappearances occurred. Now, it's 1942, and Graham, Neil, and Crescent, three friends who became amateur sleuths in Death in Kingsport (Tundra, 2007), are on their way to the island to warn Graham's Aunt Etta that she may be in grave danger. She has just inherited one-third of the castle and is spending two weeks there alone. Unfortunately, her two co-owners are not the nicest men in town. When the teens get to the island, they discover that she has disappeared. They find a secret passage, a child's skeleton, Etta's shoes, and a hidden suitcase and uncover a deadly plot. The mystery is set up well, but there are not many surprising twists. Kids may find that they know exactly what is going to happen before the characters do and become bored.—Jessica Miller, New Britain Public Library, CT END

About this edition

• Publisher: Tundra Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0887768938
• ISBN 13: 9780887768934
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224