Ollie, Coco, and Brian became close friends under somewhat trying circumstances last fall--the evil Smiling Man trying to turn them into scarecrows--and now winter has come, they're on their way to a fun weekend at a new ski lodge with Ollie's dad and Coco's mom. They almost don't make it through the intense snowstorm, and when they arrive, they find themselves the only visitors. The snow keeps falling, trapping them inside, and the power goes out. And there are ghosts.
The day after they arrive another visiter makes it through the snow, a young reporter for a ghost hunting magazine. The owners of the hotel aren't sure that publicity about the hotel's previous incarnation of an orphanage with a dark, sad, history is what they want, but the young man is keen to get ghost hunting, and can't leave in any event because of the snow.
Which keeps falling, as things inside the hotel get scarier and scarier, with the ghost of a frostbitten girl begging Ollie for help, and the reporter urging the kids to join in his hunt. And there is a lot of matieral for him to work with. There are forces of evil at play inside the hotel that might trap the kids forever with the dead orphans and their cruel caretaker, but the most deadly danger comes from outside....
It's a story full of lots and lots of details that add beautifully to the growing tension, from the many taxidermied animals that great the kids when they arrive to the claustrophobia of being snowbound. There are multiple plot twists too, that I didn't see coming, but which make sense. The kids rise to he occasion beautifully, working together really well, and Ollie's own reflections about the loss of her mother are a strong counterpoint to the tragedies of the hotel's past.
Apparently there will be two more books in the series, one in spring, and one in summer, and then I hope the kids get a rest from hair-raising horrible-ness!
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