The Twisted Tree

Goosebumps meets Lockwood & Co. meets Small Spaces in The Ghosts of Kingston Estate, a middle grade horror story about amateur ghost hunter siblings trying to rid their haunted house of the dangerous ghosts causing havoc.

Twelve-year-old Julian Penn and his eleven-year-old sister, Bella, recently rid the woods around Kingston Estate of multiple ghosts. Julian would like nothing more than to never, ever, ever see another ghost again. Ever. But strange things start happening inside their house-cracks and thumps coming from the empty attic, music that seems to float on the air, and terrifying taxidermied animals appearing from seemingly nowhere.

When Julian and Bella meet Hattie Blair, an old baker rumored to be a witch, they learn more about Kingston Estate and the tragic story that led to its abandonment many years ago. They conclude from her stories that Kingston Estate is most likely haunted-and probably by the Kingston family. While Julian would prefer to pack up and leave, Bella launches a plan to get rid of the ghosts. These ghosts are strong and angry-but they can't ask Mom and Dad for help; they don't believe in ghosts.

As the months speed toward Halloween, the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Kingston family tragedy, the ghosts' pranks and actions against the Penn family get progressively worse and more dangerous. Julian and Bella take the blame for the ghosts' destructive behavior, angering Mom and Dad and causing tension in their relationships. With Julian distancing himself from his friends and Bella having trouble with the kids at her school and Hattie too old and frail to fight ghosts, it seems the ghosts of Kingston Estate might win. Will Julian be able to swallow his fear and insecurity in time to ask for help and save the Penn family from utter destruction?