The Black Heart Crypt – Haunted Mysteries

The Black Heart Crypt

Haunted Mysteries (#4)

 
by Chris Grabenstein

Random House, 2012

336 Pages

Middle Grade (8-12 and up)

Yet another angry ghost has in in for the Jennings family! This time, it’s a whole family crypt full of ghosts. But they aren’t just gunning for Zack; their real anger is directed towards his aunts.

Thirteen demons stared at the graveyard through the cold stone walls of the Ickleby crypt.

Thirty years ago the Jennings sisters, Virginia, Hannah, and Sophie, imprisoned the Ickleby family’s spirits with a Black Heart lock when the wicked ghosts got out of hand and killed cousin Harriet’s familiar, Grizzmaldo. (Word to the wise: even if you are already dead, never, NEVER kill a witch’s cat.)

The Jennings sisters each have a cat themselves, Pyewacket, Mystic, and Mr. Cookiepants. I loved that these names came from a fundraising event at the Artemis Project Animal Rescue in New York City. (Kudos to Mr Grabenstein for helping the cats at the shelter. I’m sure their true stories make what befell Grizzmaldo pale in comparison.)

When the three aunts learn of Zack’s new found “gift,” they come to visit and offer Zack a milkshake at the Hedge Pig Emporium, just as they offered his father at his age when he was unable to rid himself of the frightful apparitions that haunted him. What we did not know before now is that his dad’s sisters are witch-… I mean, herbologists.

Zack again joins his friends Malik (who reminds me of Baljeet on Phineas & Ferb,) and Azalea to make the perfect Harry Potter-style trio (…at least Zipper isn’t a Great Dane…) It is coming up on Halloween, and Zack has been warned that something bad is going to happen. But Halloween is just the beginning of the nightmare. Digging through Aunt Ginny’s footlocker for clothes to use as costumes, the kids find an interlocking puzzle shaped like a polished black stone heart that Malik borrows, and lends to one of his friends: nerd and fellow puzzle enthusiast Norman Ickes. Shortly thereafter, goth chick and wanna-be witch Jenny Ballard is offered a wish to bring Norman to the Ickleby’s crypt on Halloween night.

The true menace here is the ghost of Barnabas Ickleby, a philanthropist from colonial times and secretly a highwayman who, disguised as a scarecrow, went by the name of Jack-the-Lantern (He visually reminds me of Disney’s Dr. Syn— though The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh was a hero, and perhaps the basis of his own future post here.)

I read a lot of Wiccan crap like that during my goth phase.

When Azalea makes a seemingly disparaging and apologetic comment about Wicca while explaining about witches’ familiars, I had to wonder where this abrupt philosophical interjection came from. Many of us Elder Goths have still not grown out of our “phase,” and don’t plan to, and many fans of mid-grade horror were raised in Wiccan households. This made me sad.

On the night of Halloween, Zack’s mother becomes a Dybbuk, (or a spirit possessing the body of one of its relatives,) by entering the corporeal shell of her sister, Francine. Next, Barnabas sends the ghost of Eddie Boy Ickleby to find Zack, but when Eddie Boy confronts the kids, he is exorcised by Aunt Ginny who “smokes him” with a sage stick. Meanwhile, Norman is possessed by Crazy Izzy Ickleby out at the cemetery, (How? Ickes… Ickleby?) who then turns on Jenny and murders her …without granting her a wish. Norman then hides the Black Heart puzzle, the lock that Aunt Ginny had allowed unsuspecting Malik to solve when the kids first found it, thus freeing the vengeful souls.

Grabenstein is skillful in exploring rarely used superstitions in his stories. That mirrors can paralyze ghosts, for instance, and the belief that jack-o’ lanterns can ward off the dead. That night, Zack’s step-mom Judy blows out a candle, leaving the pumpkins on the porch dark, and who should instantly show up but one of the vengeful spirits!

It is time for you to leave. All is well. There is nothing here for you now.

Crazy Izzy proceeds to steal a horse descended from Barnabas’ great steed, Satan, but is then torn out of Norman’s body by Barnabas himself, who, now physically manifest, dons the burlap scarecrow mask to become Jack the Lantern once again! He steals his own skull from the crypt and carries it away in a sack to prevent the witches from making another Black Heart binding spell with his teeth!

Can a simple herb like sage banish spirits entrenched within a human body? Crushing the little stone Black Heart will send Barnabas Ickleby’s soul directly to Hell, but can they find it in time? The ending here is a little more intense than I was prepared for given the rest of the book’s lighter tone. I did take great joy in the re-appearance of Grizzmaldo to wrap up the rest of the Ickleby clan in a dark and bloody vengeance.

Those of us who can see and stop evil need to protect those who cannot.

Grabenstein’s Haunted Mysteries are both funny and captivating and can be counted on for a fun, entertaining, and relaxing read. They are suitable for younger kids as well as teens. Grab one the next time you are at the bookstore. But if they offer you a milkshake, head for the door!