The Spirit in the Crypt – Alexander Lound

 

*I received a free ARC of this book with thanks to the author.  The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*

 

Blurb:  When fifteen-year-old Jonathan Roberts goes out with his friends on a summer night, he doesn’t expect to be forced to enter a crypt by Francis Everton. To be forced to look at skeletons decaying in their graves.

To hear the voice, screaming at him. Screaming into his mind. Commanding him to leave.

What the voice in the crypt belongs to, he can only wonder. A demon? A ghost? It gives him nightmares for weeks afterwards. Of skeletons strangling him. And then, bizarrely, of a girl from his school, making the long walk across the graveyard and entering the crypt. Never to come out before his waking.

When he returns to school in September, he never expects to learn that something awful has happened to the girl, turning his fear to panic.

Panic which will force him to unravel the mystery of the crypt, and in doing so, many mysteries about himself.

 

The Spirit in the Crypt is a chilling ghost story aimed at older teens and young adults.

The main character, Jonny, is very relatable – hanging around with his friends, eating pizza and playing computer games – but unfortunately the other kids at his school just don’t agree.

Thrown into an ominous crypt one night and held there against his will, Jonny discovers he can see and hear the dead, and sets into motion a supernatural mystery that needs to be solved if there are going to be any other children left at his school.

The tone is satisfactorily chilling without containing anything too gory or terrifying for the intended audience, and Jonny makes a fascinating main character as he sets about defying the supernatural with a carrier bag of groceries and some research from the internet.

This is the first book in a planned Jonny Roberts series and I will be following with interest to see where his newfound gifts take him next.

 

   “Let me out!” I shouted at them.  I ran at the door and banged on it with both hands.  “Let me out now!  All of you!”
More laughter.  I rested my head on the door.  I knew that I had no choice.  They wouldn’t let me out until I’d been deep into this crypt.  Until I’d reported every nook and cranny back to them.  And, as I turned from the door, I had a feeling, a terrible feeling, that there was something lurking in that darkness.
And whatever it was, it didn’t want me there.

– Alexander Lound, The Spirit in the Crypt

 

Find more from Alexander Lound at his website here, or follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Goodreads.

The Spirit in the Crypt is out on Amazon today!

 

 

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