The Bone Snatcher

January 16, 2017
British author Salter makes a memorable debut with this eerie psychological adventure. The tale opens with Sophie Seacove, a 12-year-old in a country much like England, being spirited away from parents who may (or may not) have sold her into servitude while gripped by something called sea fever. Sophie finds herself on an island known as Catacomb Hill, the once-grand estate of an inventor-businessman and his family, in the midst of a monster-infested sea. The inventor’s wife and twin sons remain on the island, along with an elderly caretaker, Mr. Scree. Sophie’s new job as Bone Snatcher is to feed the monsters—keeping them from devouring the island—and to stay alive herself. The secrets of the island appeal to Sophie’s storyteller soul, and with the help of the inventor’s mysterious nephew, Cartwright, she aims to solve the mysteries hidden in the decrepit house’s walls. An accessible narrative style combines with a darkly detailed environment—morbid and creepy moments are in no short supply—to spark imaginations. Ages 10–14. Agent: Kirsty McLachlan, David Goodwin Associates.

Narrator Eilidh Beaton superbly introduces Salter's macabre debut. As a "sea fever" grips the world, the ocean brims with sea monsters, so everyone flees to the New Continent, except for Sophie, whose family abandons her to a strange family on an island. On an estate reminiscent of Lovecraft or the Addams Family, twin boys follow Sophie through the halls, taunting her in eerily spooky singsong in endlessly repeating variations. Scree, the caretaker and Sophie's guide, has a kindly voice, though he's somewhat impatient with Sophie's rebellious streak. The twins' mother, "The Battleship," bellows insane orders like a general. Sophie's only respite is the soft-spoken nephew, Cartwright, who returns to look for a mysterious box. M.F.T. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine