Midnight at the Barclay Hotel

Fleur T. Bradley's Midnight at the Barclay Hotel is a murder mystery for 8 year olds set in a grand old hotel that's supposed to be haunted.

What happens

JJ doesn't like reading (at all). What he loves is ghost hunting, with a proper kit and everything. So when his mum gets a fancy invitation to a free weekend at the Barclay Hotel, the most haunted place in town, he makes sure she says yes.

Penny is there too, tagging along with her grandpa, a retired detective. She loves books and thinks ghosts are "poppycock". The two of them make a bet about whether the hotel's haunted before they've even arrived!

The hotel has a carousel, a bowling alley, a hedge maze and a Cupcake Shoppe. It also has no phone signal at all.

Then the butler makes an announcement at the welcome party. Mr Barclay died a week ago. It wasn't a heart attack. And one of the guests is responsible.

Every guest has a secret. The cowboy, the librarian, the actress, even JJ's mum. The storyteller keeps dropping little hints about each of them, so you end up suspecting absolutely everyone. JJ says it's just like the board game Clue, and the butler is NOT amused.

It's a really good one to read together. The narrator chats to you directly ("you can guess the answer to that"), and there's a lovely friendship forming between the boy who hates books and the girl who can't put them down. Can a sceptic and a ghost hunter solve a murder together? That's the fun of it.

The spooky side is mild. The death happens before the story starts, it's poison rather than anything gory, and the ghost stories are the shivery kind told in the back of a car. Most children who like a puzzle will be hooked from the first chapter.

What to read next

If your reader wants another spooky mystery from the same author, reach for Daybreak on Raven Island. Three seventh graders go on a school trip to an old island prison, and the island's ravens would really rather they stayed away.