The Ghouls of Howlfair by Nick Tomlinson – Book Review
The Ghouls of Howlfair by Nick Tomlinson – Book Review
The Ghouls of Howlfair
Author – Nick Tomlinson
Publisher – Walker Books
Pages – 336
Released – 3rd October 2019
ISBN-13 – 978-1406386684
Format – ebook, paperback, audio
Review by – Stacey
Rating – 5 Stars
I received a free copy of this book.
This post contains affiliate links.
The scariest legends are about to come true!
Molly Thompson has lots of questions. Questions like, is her Aunt Carol an undead fiend who drinks the blood of the living? Is she secretly lurking in the attic? And is Molly’s friend Lowry a descendant of a long line of Kroglin werewolves?
Serious young historian Molly suspects that the creepy legends about her tourist town of Howlfair are starting to come true. But when her mother bans her from doing any further research, bookworm Molly and her friends – scatty Lowry and guardian-cat Gabriel – become covert monster-hunters to keep Howlfair safe.
It seems that someone is secretly trying to summon Howlfair’s mythical monsters, and with the election of a new town mayor looming, everything – and everyone – is becoming increasingly suspicious…
Molly Thompson lives at the Excelsior Guesthouse with her mum, the owner. Molly is a very inquisitive young girl who loves to investigate all the going on in the village she lives in, Howlfair. From trying to find out whether her Aunt is a vampire, to solving the case on whether her best friend Lowry is a descendant of Werewolves destined to change as the Blue Moon arrives.
Her mum is not very happy with her investigating the residents in the village and after Molly destroys some family heirlooms her mother bans her from doing any more investigating and removes her library card and tells her to take back all of her books. However, when one of the guests suddenly dies and Molly finds a note which states within it ‘The Ghouls are Coming for me’, Molly knows that she can’t leave this mystery alone.
With her secret mission underway, she stumbles upon an ancient legend about a manor house, a previous owner and the way to summon monsters and a link between the man currently running for Mayor whose policy is that he is going to make Howlfair scary again. Is Molly on the right track? Is someone summoning ghouls? And can she stop them before more people are injured or frightened to death?
What an amazing book ‘The Ghouls of Howlfair’ is. Molly is such a brilliant protagonist, she is feisty, caring, and determined to out the truth about everything in her hometown. She does have some help though from her best friend Lowry who lets her hide her investigation stuff at her house. She also has her Gran who is in the hospital on her side and her beloved cat Gabriel too.
The book is so good, the plot is exciting and the writing just flows and makes you want to keep on reading. There is an adventure in each chapter which makes this book so hard to put down.
The book is humorous and mysterious and whilst not scary, it is a great introduction to books featuring potential ghouls, ghosts and monsters and is just perfect for this time of year. I do hope that we see more of Molly in the future as I believe she has some more investigations to be getting on with – Move over Sherlock there is a new detective in town!
Book Reviewer – Stacey
Purchase online from:
Amazon.co.uk – Amazon.com – Amazon.in – Blackwells
About the Author
Nick Tomlinson is a former English, Drama and Special Needs teacher, academic learning mentor, singing waiter and admin clerk. He has performed in a sell-out show at the Edinburgh Fringe, accidentally camped on a military target range in West Africa, and managed to pass his karate black belt grading despite choking on his gum shield.
A lifelong bookworm, Nick has been writing stories since he was five. His adult novel, Saint Valentine, was published by Transworld in 2004. Nick lives in Herefordshire.
Thank you SO MUCH, Stacey, for your brilliant, brilliant review and for posting on the Waterstones website. I’m so glad you liked it! And sounds like Molly would fit in well in your household, dressed in her dad’s Iron Maiden tee shirt (which in future books will become something of a trademark for Molly, along with her Doris de Ville’s Street Cleaning Crew tee shirt and saying ‘Flipping Nora’). Thanks again Stacey X
Thanks Nick, so happy that you liked the review, you might find that the review has been placed on many sites, including Amazon (they are not always that quick at authorising the reviews though). I agree Molly would certainly fit in to my household.
This sounds fantastic! Perfect October read.
I can think of a couple of younger ones that would love this.
This looks like a fun one
I love the cover of this one! It sounds good too.
Great review Stacey, this book looks and sounds like a really amazingly fun book and right up my alley as well. I am really glad you fully enjoyed reading this book, thank you so much for sharing your awesome post.
Fun review
Love that cover. This sounds great
It truly is fantastic and I agree perfect for this month.
Yay, brilliant, I do hope they get to read it as the book is amazing.
It most certainly is.
I agree the cover is gorgeous and so is the inside.
Thanks, I’m so happy you enjoyed the review and that the book sounds like your kind of read.
Thank, glad you like it.
It really is amazing.