Spectre Collectors: A New York Nightmare!

Barry Hutchison's A New York Nightmare is the second Spectre Collectors adventure, a daft and very fast ghost-hunting comedy for 10 year olds about a boy who's only been in the job for a week.

What happens

Denzel and his best mate Smithy have just joined the Spectre Collectors, a top-secret organisation that protects the world from ghosts. Smithy has a big secret of his own. It's the bombshell of the first book, so it's best left for your reader to find there.

Neither of them is getting the hang of it. The proper agents have magic and all the guns in the world. Denzel has a torch, a walkie-talkie and a ring that's cutting off the blood to his finger.

It opens in a creepy abandoned fairground, where the two of them are sent into the Ghost Train. Sharks' teeth! Bats! A monster that's either a monkey or a bear, depending on who you ask. It all turns out to be an initiation prank. Then a real ghost train comes smashing through the wall, heading straight for Denzel.

Nobody knows why ghosts keep coming for him. So he's packed off to New York, squashed into "Economy E Class" (the E stands for Economy), and teleported into mid-air above the city by mistake.

And the American team? It's just two kids, Weinberg and Martinez, in a basement under the Empire State Building. And somebody keeps whispering in Denzel's head. Go left. Hurry. He is coming.

Smithy gets most of the laughs. He keeps asking "What would you rather?" questions (a cage with a clown dressed as a bear, or a bear dressed as a clown?). When he panics he claims he's just communicating with dolphins. It's silly, quick and very quotable.

It's worth knowing the agents carry big guns and use them, and there are some properly creepy moments, like a kind old doorman whose eyes go glassy as he whispers a warning. It's all mixed in with jokes, so it's more spooky fun than scary.

Do start with Too Ghoul For School if Denzel is new to your reader, though. This one takes the first book's big surprise as read from the very first page.

What to read next

For another ordinary kid pulled into a secret ghost-busting world, try Embassy of the Dead. Jake Green found out by accident that he can see ghosts, and staying alive has been a lot more complicated ever since.