The Seven Keys by Allison Rushby

Title: The Seven Keys

Author: Allison Rushby

Genre: Historical Fiction/Ghost stories

Publisher: Walker Books

Published: 1^st July 2019

Format: Paperback

Pages: 272

Price: $19.99

Synopsis: The spooky, action-packed and much-anticipated sequel to the award-winning The Turnkey.

Flossie Birdwhistle is the Turnkey at London’s Highgate Cemetery. Seven years have passed since Flossie saved her country from a ghostly invasion during World War II. Since then, things have been quiet. That is, until Flossie’s nemesis, Hugo Howsham, reveals a secret the pair have been keeping – the keys of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries can be combined to make a Turnkey not only mortal, but immortal. When Hugo Howsham begins stealing keys, the other Turnkeys turn against Flossie, trusting her no longer. With family, friends and her cemetery in danger, can Flossie find the inner strength to protect everything she has ever cared about?

~*~

It’s been seven years since Flossie saved Highgate Cemetery from a Nazi invasion during World War II with Hugo Howsham. For the past seven years, things have been quiet and the dead at rest. Yet Hugo Howsham wants to unite the seven keys of the Magnificent Seven cemeteries because they will make the Turnkey who holds them mortal and immortal. And when Hugo starts stealing keys, and the Flossie is abandoned by the other Turnkeys, Flossie sets about trying to defeat Hugo, with the help of some new Advisors and an old friend so she can save her family, friends, her cemetery, and the dead that she watches over. So Flossie sets about finding out how to save the cemeteries from Hugo’s dastardly goals.

The sequel to the Turnkey is just as brilliant as the first one, and just as spooky. In 1947, there are newly interred, who keep Flossie informed about the changing world, the post-war years, and the ongoing rationing from the war years as the country repairs and recovers. Ghosts abound in this story, as they do in all of Allison’s books. And I love Flossie – she brings the world of the afterlife to life for our world – and shows how close they are – the twilight world between living and death where Flossie and other ghosts can watch their loved ones. I think the ghostly mystery is very well done, and it is spooky in all the right ways. As someone who doesn’t often read ghost stories, I have found that Allison’s are the right kind of spooky for me – not too scary, but just enough to make it interesting and make me feel a little unsettled in the right places.

Flossie is a delightful character – having a ghost as the main character made the book interesting and she is one of my favourite ghostly characters, because she has so much heart and joy. She is complex – I felt for her when she was torn between the world of the living and the world of the twilight she is now part of and there is a part towards the end where this becomes explicit – and I was so torn between wanting Flossie to be in one world over the other, but I knew she would have to make a choice. And that is what I think is at the heart of this book – choice, and the choices that we make, or have to make, and what it means when we finally make a decision.

I felt like there might be a third book to come – some things felt unfinished, yet at the same time, there was also a sense of finality. We got a conclusion that was satisfying and full of heart. I am looking forward to seeing what else Allison Rushby writes for her readers next, because I will be waiting keenly for those next books. I loved Flossie’s story, and she is a very nice ghost – I think I would very much like to meet her in real life! Another great middle grade read!