43 Old Cemetery Road (Series)

43 Old Cemetery Road

by Kate Klise
Illustrated by M. Sarah Klise
Houton-Mifflin-Harcourt, 2009-2014
Young Readers

1. Dying to Meet You (2009)

Ghastly Illinois is home to an abandoned mansion haunted by the ghost of an author who has sworn to remain until she sees her work in print, an achievement she never attained while alive. Olive C. Spence was the original owner of the old Victorian on Cemetery Road 97 years ago, and one Ignatius B. Grumply finds her spirit still active when he rents the house as a retreat in which to finish his own work of fiction. He also discovers a boy hiding in the upstairs bedroom, whose parents have left him behind on their crusade to prove to the world that ghosts do not exist.

Too bad for Ignaz that the boy, Seymour Hope (son of Les and Diane Hope,) is close friends with Olive. The two conspire to rid the mansion of the grouchy old man.

Books go missing from the library, a private investigator becomes involved, and the house is finally threatened with demolition. Can the three overcome their differences long enough to each prevent their own downfall?

This unique lighthearted comedy is presented entirely in epistolary format. It’s filled with wonderful sketched illustrations (by Seymour, of course,) and hilarious puns.

Pages typeset as if they were The Ghastly Times newspaper are cumbersome and likely to be skipped because they shift the flow of reading so much, but the unique font style for each character’s writing and the heading of each letter’s stationary make it easy to follow who is talking while providing insight from each character’s individual point of view.

The saga of 43 Old Cemetery Road is a quick and easy read that is entertaining and fun while it imbues a sense of mystery noir into the suspenseful interplay of correspondence.

I enjoyed the first book a little more than the others, but the series is consistent in its quality. It is meant for younger audiences, and is WAY fun!

2. Over My Dead Body (2010)

The second chapter of the Cemetery Road chronicles finds Ignatius B. Grumply locked in the Ghastly Home for the Deranged and Seymour Hope committed to the Ghastly Orphanage. Meanwhile the ghost of Olive C. Spence goes on a mystery tour of the town of Ghastly, trying to hunt down the location of her forgotten unpublished manuscripts.

This is all the result of the family coming under attack by one Dick Tater at the International Movement for the Safety and Protection Of Our Kids and Youth, which has also banned Halloween and ordered that all ghost stories be burned on December 31. The authors’ fans turn against them when Tater claims that the existence of a ghost at the mansion is only a hoax.

Tension builds as Seymour escapes, and he and Olive plan to break Ignatius out of the loony-bin. Seymour’s parents threaten to return for him and place him in a different orphanage, and Mr. Tater goes as far as to have Olive C. Spence exhumed from her grave!

(Spoiler: The epilogue seems a stretch even for such a whimsical romp, that somehow this was all set in motion by a misguided idea Ms. Spence had to both legitimize their governorship of Seymour and at the same time reveal to the world what an evil man Dick Tater and the threat his IMSPOOKY organization posed.)

3. Till Death Do Us Bark (2011)

Now that Seymour Hope has been properly adopted by the co-authors, he finds a friend in the dog of a recently deceased millionaire. But between Ignatius’ allergies and Olive’s catty resentment, the dog doesn’t seem welcome at the Spence Mansion.

The estate of the millionaire, Noah Breth, (appraised at seven million,) is contested by his children, Kitty and Kanine Breth who never truly cared about their father as evidenced by their fight over the money. In order to receive the inheritance they have only to solve a riddle (in the thrilling Westing Game fashion.)

You kids never did write to me, except when you needed money or wanted to badmouth each other. Pity I was unsuccessful in sharing with you the joys of writing a nice letter.

The interesting headlines in the newspaper are all about the valuable antique coins people begin finding spread about the town of Ghastly, some of them worth thousands.

More clues show up, posted posthumously, while the siblings argue over the fortune in letters to lawyers and Noah’s executor. At the same time, the dog trouble at 43 Cemetery Road causes Seymour to run away.

Though Seymour returns the dog to his rightful family in the end, he and Secret (the Irish Wolfhound) end up playing a central role in solving the mystery of the missing money. But Olive’s cat Shadow has a secret of her own!

4. Phantom of the Post Office (2012)

The Ghastly Post Office is about to be shut down, replaced by VEXT mail: –Video Enhanced Text Messaging– made possible by a wireless electronic veil worn on the head. Introduced by the new postmaster, Sal U. Tayshuns, VEXT mail is Unfortunately not very reliable and people’s words are often misunderstood.

Wynonna Fye, the niece of the Ghastly Public Library’s chief librarian (M. Balm) comes to visit, but is stricken with a Phantom Flu and hospitalized. She is soon joined by Seymour, but they develop a friendship by sending each other letters through the hospital’s internal mail. They both read The Phantom of the Opera and discuss it. Well, Seymour reads it, Wy receives the digest edition as he conveys the story in his letters.

While she is visiting, the Librarian makes a bet with his niece:

If Wy can refrain from talking, texting, tweeting or playing games on a cell phone for the entire month of February, I will return her phone when she leaves Ghastly on March 1.

Some “bet.”

Meanwhile, Ignatius and Olive begin receiving strange fan mail, return-addressed from P.O. Box 5 in the Ghastly Post Office (Didn’t the Phantom of the Opera haunt opera box number 5?) The very place in the Post Office said to be haunted!

We learn more about Weston Peece, a dear childhood friend of Olive who became Ghastly’s postman back when she was still writing. The fan letters become more and more threatening. In fact, the author of the phan-mail goes as far as to steal a letter right out of the alphabet, resulting in the alteration of the spelling in the following correspondence, all of which have their F’s replaced with ‘Ph’!

The threats of the ghost come to a climactic ending as Olive investigates The Phantom the very night the Post Office is to be leveled by a wrecking ball– with Seymour and Wy alongside her!

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