Ghosts of Greenglass House, by Kate Milford

Ghosts of Greenglass House, by Kate Milford (2017, middle grade, Clarion Books), was my most anticipated book of 2017 (I loved the first book, Greenglass House, very much, and if you haven't read it first, do so before reading this because spoilers).  It was released 2 days ago, so I'm later than I wanted to be getting a review up, but it was for a good reason--my 9th grade made friends this year with an 8th grade girl who also loved Greenglass House, and so I passed on my ARC to him to lend to her, which made me (and her) both happy--it has always been my dream that my boys' friends would be happy recipients of my ARCs and this hasn't happened as much as I had anticipated....

So Ghosts of Greenglass house takes place a year after the last book.  Once again it is Christmas, and it has been a year since Meddy, the ghost girl who once lived there has turned up.  It is slowish to start; Milo, whose parents run Greenglass House as a hotel, is disgruntled and cranky (partly because he is a Chinese adoptee, and has just had to deal with an insensitive teacher), and there's no snow yet.  There's only one guest in residence--a young art student in love with the stained glass windows.  But then guests arrive.  The first to come are dear characters from the first book--Clem and Georgie, professional thieves.  Their most recent job, liberating an extraordinary map, went sour, and they need to lie low.  Then the Waits ( mummers and carol singers) arrive, and the peace of Greenglass House is shattered when one of them is poisoned, and the treasures that Clem and Georgie have brought with them are stolen.

Milo is of course eager to solve this mystery, and happily Meddie turns up to assist, and once more they fall into the role-playing game that helped them out last time.  And once more storytelling brings clarity to the puzzle, and lots of hot chocolate is drunk, and more of the strange history of Nagspeake is revealed. And there's another ghost involved...  So of course I loved reading all this!

Because the oddball collection of individuals who make up the Waits are not actual guests, the story takes place in basically a day and a half, which made it somewhat more frantic than book 1; there was less time for Christmassy peace, and things felt a tad squashed. I was also slightly disappointed that Meddie didn't do more; Milo has to do almost all the figuring out himself.  But still it was a great read!   I look forward to reading it again, out loud closer to December, to the 9th grader referenced above, who has already asked me to do so.  Knowing how things unfold, and the slower pace of reading out loud, will let me enjoy it even more!

disclaimer: review copy received from the publisher