The Coming of the Spirits by Rob Keeley

The Coming of the Spirits by Rob Keeley
Buy The Coming of the Spirits by Rob Keeley at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Confident Readers
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: Highly satisfying conclusion to what has been a thoroughly enjoyable ghostly series by Rob Keeley. How will Ellie's journey through the spirit world end? I couldn't possibly tell you so you will have to read it for yourself!
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 160	Date: April 2019
Publisher: Troubador
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1789017168
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In Victorian England, young Edward Fitzberranger is about to be infected with scarlet fever and die. Further back still in time, Sir Francis Fitzberranger is about to marry Tina, the love of his life. In the modern day, Henry and Luke are getting on with life. And in an alternate timeline, Ellie is working for a resistance movement and struggling under a Britain ruled by the Nazis...

... something is drawing them together. The barrier between the spirit world and the real one is becoming more and more porous and no-one is safe. The timeline must be corrected and history put back as it should have been. The Grand Defender is the only one who can do it. But who is the Grand Defender and how can they save the world? Read on, for a hundred and fifty pages of glorious, non-stop action. If you have been reading this series, you'll finally discover how everything and everyone fits together. If you haven't, you really must read the first book in this entertaining series.

Oh, aww. It's all over. Spirits has been such a satisfying supernatural adventure. It has roamed all over the place - from ghostly mansions to modern day London and to an alternate timeline in which the Nazis are running Britain. Along the way, we have met a wealth of vivid characters: naughty, snobbish ghost Edward; Sir Francis the vegetable-phobe, even Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson. But chief among them is central character Ellie, a girl who rises to every occasion and is honest, dogged, courageous and unflappable. In this final instalment, Ellie is tested more than she has ever been before. Is there a way out? Can the timeline be repaired? And what will happen to all the people whose lives and fates have been changed by Ellie's involvement in the spirit world?

I can't tell you, of course, because that would spoil it all. But I will say this: you can trust Ellie to find a way but it won't be without sacrifice and not everyone will make it out unscathed. It is very much to Rob Keeley's credit that this last story in the series has managed to take so many subplots and narrative threads and reconciled them all without ever losing control of any of them. And to have managed this while maintaining a frenetic pace of high tension and action is quite the achievement. I read The Coming of the Spirits in one, rather breathless, sitting and I definitely did not see the twist coming. But it all made sense when it did. Well done, Rob, for keeping the balancing act going right to the very end.

I'll miss Ellie. And Edward. And Mum and Dad and Charlie and Luke. And all the others. Thanks for the ride!

Recommended for all middle grade readers who enjoy a good supernatural adventure.

Rob Keeley has also written some wonderful short stories for middle grade readers. Try The Alien in the Garage and Other Stories for starters.

The Coming of the Spirits by Rob Keeley is in the Top Ten Self-Published Books 2018.

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Coming of the Spirits by Rob Keeley at Amazon.com.

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