Blackbriar

Children's Literature - Cynthia Levinson

"Something, Danny felt, was waiting there; and suddenly he had the uncanny sensation that it was waiting for him." This is fifteen-year-old Danny's first impression of Blackbriar, the isolated, decaying cottage in northern England that he and his guardian, the overbearing Philippa, move to from their flat in London. His creepy premonitions are borne out in this fantasy/mystery/Gothic novel when Philippa's cat, Islington, hisses at a wooden figurine he finds, he hears laughter and dancing during the night, and someone lights a fire in the grate while Danny and Philippa are not at home. Danny, who was orphaned as a child, also finds names and dates from the seventeenth century carved into a doorpost. Doing research in the village library, where he overhears a garbled conversation between the librarian and the sinister Lord Harleigh, he learns that Blackbriar was a "pest house," an asylum for bubonic plague victims. He and his new friend, Lark, whom he meets at the nearby tumuli (mounds), crawl through a tunnel from Blackbriar's dank basement into Harleigh's mansion, where they later find Philippa, who has gone missing, incarcerated. A climactic dance around a fire by the tumuli and the arrest of Harleigh, an elf, and other nefarious locals culminate the story. In the epilogue, Danny declares his independence from Philippa. The personalities and motivations of the main characters are inconsistent and, thus, their relationship is not entirely credible. Minor characters are not developed at all. The plot, in places, is creakier than it is creepy; nevertheless, readers who enjoy a safe scare will shiver over this one. Reviewer: Cynthia Levinson