About the Book

Welcome to Elbow Alley, home of the most monstrous mystery…
Pip was not expecting his new neighbours to be vampires, banshees and ghosts. Worst of all is the mysterious spirit snatcher, which appears out of nowhere and sucks away people’s personalities. When it attacks Pip’s parents, the only way to save them is to find and destroy it. But no one knows who it is…

Along with his new friend Fliss and her dog Splodge, Pip sets out to investigate, facing murderous ghouls, werewolf attacks and a dangerously mouldy cheese. Because if he and Fliss can’t stop the creature by their thirteenth birthdays, they’ll be spirit-snatched too.

About the Author

Cat Gray is an author and journalist, based in London and Ireland. She started her journalism career at the age of 19, interviewing musicians and celebrities in between attending classes, then went on to be an editor at a series of glossy magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar and Town & Country.

Since she was very young, she’s always believed that there’s an adventure just around the corner, and this is reflected in her magical fantasy stories.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/_catgray
Instagram: http://instagram.com/cat.gray

What I Thought

Another wonderful magical tale by Cat Gray and this one is perfect for Spooky Season. I really enjoyed following Pip, and his new friend Fliss, along on their adventure. But the whole of Elbow Alley was full of interesting ghouls, vampires, banshees, werewolves and much more. We are presented a smorgasbord of unique characters. Even Pip’s very human parents are flamboyant – until they are not. 

A spirit snatcher has targeted the new kid on the block but he isn’t eligible for spirit snatching until he turns 13 on Halloween. But a monster has to eat in the meantime – and what better way to get parents out of the way of an adventure than to make them the reason for the adventure to occur. 

The mystery was fun, spooky and sometimes a bit scary but when you have a dog called Splodge on your side what can’t you face? 

Really hoping that we get to hear more from Pip, Fliss and all the other residents of Elbow Alley – and if you spy any secret streets in London beware there may be magical folks living there that don’t take too kindly to outsiders. 

Huge thanks to Bee at Kaleidoscopic Tours and the publisher Usborne for the gifted copy for the purposes of an honest review. As ever pop along to everyone else’s blog to see what they thought too.