Lure of the Dead – Book Review

Lure of the Dead

Wardstone Chronicles #10

by Joseph Delaney

Greenwillow Books, 2012

Middle Grade (13 and up)

Finally the Spook faces vampires! Are these Romanian demons the end of Old Gregory? Will Tom face Alice with what needs to be done to defeat the Fiend? The Spook books just get better and better. I usually read a new one the night I get it. They are printed in a big, creepy, old-style font, there are lots of chilling black-line pictures that carry the story along, and each chapter is a cliff-hanger. This one starts off with a right cross to the chin.

As if Alice hasn’t gone through enough by being held captive in the Dark by the Devil himself, now she is expected to go back for one of the three swords Tom needs to defeat the Fiend once-and-for-all. Tom starts by meeting his Aunt Slake, the lamia, at Malkin Tower in Pendle.

Your blood suddenly curdles as you fall into one of the most frightful images in the book. Agnes Sowerbutts, now dead, wanders the craggy forest at the foot of Malkin Tower alone by dusk, searching for evil witches…or children… to drain of blood.

There, Tom is visited by the apparition of his mother, who first appears in her frighteningly un-human natural form. She informs Tom that not only does Alice have to return to the Dark, but that she has to willingly offer herself as a sacrifice as Tom takes her thumbs and she does not cry out in pain.

Alice is again shown to be one of the strongest characters in this series as she agrees to go back into the Dark without complaint. Tom is the weak one, keeping the true, heart-wrenching need a secret.

Fate or Deus ex Machina? The sword Tom received from Cuchulain when he faced off against The Morrigan was one of the three he needs to fend off the Devil. (I think Delaney had this planned a long time ago, really, but still. What luck. It must have been his destiny.) And Slake has already transcribed the directions for defeating the Fiend as dictated to her directly by Tom’s Mam. Well, that keeps the story moving along. Took all the fun out of Tom wrestling with learning the old tongue, though.

This chapter in Tom’s saga brings us mano a mano with Romanian demons: the lightning fast stregoi who sleep by night while being watched over by their female counterparts (stregoica.) While the male is truly undead, the females possess the bodies of the living, sending their victims’ souls to limbo. These vampires-by-any-other-name are allied with Romanian witches who can orb and suck the life out of a spook with no chance of defeat, as well as moroi, who take the form of bears, but can fall victim to the vampire’s obsession of counting objects cast to the ground before them.

Suddenly, I sensed that something was wrong. The witch wasn’t in the bed, she was under it. She was on us in an instant, all teeth and claws.

We see that Tom is definitely beginning to step up to his role as the Spook’s successor. He begins to make his own decisions and solves most of his problems in the adventure alone. Alice is almost not present in this book. She is there, and interacts with Tom, but it’s obvious Delaney is distancing us from her through Tom’s eyes. How can he open himself to her knowing what he has to do to her? How will he ever be able to follow through? But they do get to travel together for a nice surprise when they go to invite an old friend back to John Gregory’s new house.

What are the stregoi after? The head of the Fiend, of course. And of course, who does Tom call for help? Grimalkin, who comes running with the sack over her shoulder. First rule: if you are home alone on a dark and stormy night, and there is a crash in the basement… Don’t go down alone!!! If you are carrying the severed head of the Devil in a bag, and every supernatural creature in the County and beyond is after you… Don’t walk right into a nest of powerful stregoi !!! But it turns out to be a bit of luck. Without Grimalkin, Tom and The Spook haven’t got a hope against the host of Romanian undead, because they are summoning one of the most powerful of the Old Gods, Siscoi.

A new Spook, one of Old Gregory’s apprentices, Judd Brinscall is introduced; one who has been to Romania, and knows the stregoi well. But he betrays his former master, and both of them end up in feeding pits.

As we have come to expect, the author offers another piece of mythology to expand the realm of the County. He explores Grimoires, the most powerful of which –The Doomdryte– happens to be in the library of the stregoi.

What no one would have seen coming is the fulfillment of the prophecy of John Gregory’s death.

You will die in a dark place far underground, with no friend at your side!

At the end, Tom hears his mother’s voice again while fighting Siscoi. It didn’t seem necessary. But it did make me think that perhaps there is an ‘out’ for them. What if the only real and true way to defeat the Fiend is to take the place of your True Love and sacrifice yourself instead? What if you don’t really die, but the act of your sacrifice alone was enough to save the world? No. I don’t think Delaney would take the easy way out; we’ve already seen the death of so many other important characters like Bill Arkwright and Mam. But to allow Alice’s thumbs to be taken as her one True Love murders her just seems way too harsh for a middle-grade novel.

Get on your feet and fight! Kill your enemy now! Kill him before he kills you! Be like Grimalkin! Never give in!

The Spook books move fast. The remarkable thing is that Delaney tells such a rich story so succinctly. I feel fulfilled at the end of each book though it only takes me a night to read them, because the over-arching storyline has been moved further along at the same time we are given a whole stand-alone adventure. All the better for re-reading again and again.