The Legend of Ghastly Jack Crowheart by Loretta Schauer

Title: The Legend of Ghastly Jack Crowheart

Author: Loretta Schauer

Genre: Historical Fiction, Ghost Stories

Publisher: Walker Books/Andersen Press

Published: 1^st December 2023

Format: Paperback

Pages: 256

Price: $18.99

Synopsis: Stand and deliver! Lil and her pet crow must find a way to frighten off a gang of ruthless highwaymen who are terrorising the customers of the inn where she lives.

For Lil, life at the Squawking Mackerel inn couldn’t be more miserable. She’s tasked with the sloppiest, grottiest jobs and picked on at every turn. Her only friend is Augustus Scratchy, a cantankerous crow with a habit of stealing. When the dread villain Rotten Bob Hatchet and his gang of cut-throat highwaymen begin attacking travellers on the road, things get really dire.

Joining forces with a new servant boy, Ned, and armed with the contents of the inn’s lost property cupboard, a pocket full of revolting dumplings and some knicker elastic, Lil comes up with a plot to scare off Rotten Bob. And so the legend of Ghastly Jack Crowheart the Demon Highwayman is born!

Dangerous highwaymen, furious crows, ludicrous underwear, and a turnip apocalypse – stand and deliver!

~*~

Lil lives and works at the Squawking Mackerel Inn with Ma Scroggins and her daughters and has since she has abandoned there as a baby. Poor Lil get stuck with the grottiest jobs and is constantly bullied – and her only friend is a cantankerous, thieving crow called Augustus Scratchy. One day, a range of visitors appear at the inn, including a gang of highwaymen led by Rotten Bob Hatchet – and they’re out for blood. So Lil enlists the help of the new servant boy Ned to hatch a plan to scare Rotten Bob – enter Ghastly Jack Crowheart!

Lil and Ned create their ghastly figure from the lost property cupboard of the Squawking Mackerel inn – dumplings, knicker elastic, and other items that help them create the legend and character of Ghastly Jack Crowheart. It is set around the 18^th to the 19^th century, where orphans and workhouses and child labour were common – but Lil and Ned are able to shine through and show that they are more than what everyone thinks – they can do more and are capable of more. When these two stand up to people who do bad things or treat them badly, I felt that this was an effective aspect of the story. I also think having them work within the system worked. They were able to keep their secret whilst still telling everyone about the legend.

The setting gave the book an eerie feel, as it was set in a small area – the inn and its surrounds. The smaller setting made it easier for Lil and Ned to play their fun tricks, which they managed to involve the thieving crow in as well, and I liked the ingenuity at play here, allowing the child characters to shine and evolve across the novel. And we also got to discover things about the characters as the story went on, which gave them depth and showed how they functioned in the world. Lil, who was treated badly, shone through as creative and caring – I could tell that she didn’t want to become like Ma Scroggins and did all she could to prevent that, which is why her friendship with Ned worked so well. And I loved that she came up with the legend so well – it showed that there has always been creativity in the world and that different people experience the world in different ways. The role of the highwaymen makes it intriguing because I wanted to see how Lil dealt with them, whilst everyone else seemed to give into them. I liked that the story was driven by a character who you may not expect – a scullery maid in a roadside inn, who I felt was a little bit like Cinderella, which worked well for the story. I enjoyed this book, as it was just set in an historical time and place without specific references or events, which made it work very well and gave the story a nice grounding. I think it’ll be great for readers aged eight and older who like things that are a little bit spooky, funny, and with lots of mischief that goes undetected.