The Ghosts in the Attic

A book approved of by testers. As an adult reader I found it difficult to suspend belief sufficiently -- not to accept the ghosts in the attic, but to condone the mixed-up behaviour of the grown-ups in the story. Amy's mother sees Amy as full-time baby sitter for a younger, brain-damaged sister. She has no sympathy for Amy when she wants relief from this daunting chore and as yet another friendship is threatened Amy runs away to a strange spinster aunt who lives alone in the isolated family home. Aunt Clare is one moment open-armed, consoling, entertaining; the next resentful, aggressive, withdrawn. Through Amy, she relives childhood memories of violent murders and a broken heart. In the attic tiny dolls re-enact the murder of Amy's grandparents. Amy is able to solve a long unsolved murder mystery, she comes to love her sister, understand her parents, give her aunt a reason for living. There are some genuinely spine-chilling passages and some glimpses of reality. But it is a very complex plot and I can't help feeling that the author has attempted to handle too many predicaments in one story.