The Girl and the Ghost: Family Secrets
The Girl and the Ghost: Family Secrets
Jacqueline Harvey
Penguin, 2025
368pp., pbk., RRP $A16.99
9781761349416
Josephine Eloise Thomas (aka Jet) has moved from metro Sydney to rural France with her dad Matt, stepmum Ellie, brother Teddy and golden retriever, Daisy to renovate an old chateau they have bought to turn into a guesthouse. They have chosen the location deliberately because Jet’s mum was born and raised there, but she died when Jet was very young and little is known about her childhood. But what sounds like it could be another episode of Escape to the Chateau takes an interesting turn when Jet finds an old locket hidden in an armoire (wardrobe) in her room, and even more intriguing when she opens it and a ghost emerges. And it’s not any old past resident of the chateau but one who claims to be Louis XVII. younger son of King Louis XVI of France and Queen Marie Antoinette and heir to the French throne.
It seems that only Jet and Daisy can see and hear him, and if she closes the locket he is locked away again, which she does often until they start to build a “friendship” but that’s when the mystery begins… Is it about Louis’ life because history says he died in 1795 at the age of 10 at the Cafe La Tour du Temple in Paris yet the ghost claims to be 14 and was smuggled out of the capital and looked after in a nearby chateau until he got sick and died from a broken heart? Is it about the mysterious childhood of Jet’s mother where there are questions and clues, but no answers?
Now, in the second in this series, Jet is looking forward to her friend Harriet coming for a visit, but before that she and her friend Gabriel are at the Louvre with their families to be given a reward for solving the great art heist of the first book. Her secret friend Louis is also there, but amidst all the fun and festivities comes news that the mastermind of the heist has escaped custody and wants revenge. So as well as wanting to find out the answers to her questions about her mother’s family and her heritage, as well as discovering what happened to Louis’ lost love Madeleine Aubert, Jet and Gabriel have to deal with this new threat. Is Jet really being followed or is she paranoid? And can she let Gabriel and Harriet into her secret relationship with Louis?
Full of twists and turns that add layers of intrigue to this story that is best read in sequence, independent readers who enjoy historical fiction with the hint of romance are going to not only enjoy this sequel but eagerly await the next development as we are told that “book three is percolating” and we won’t have to wait long for it!
