cover image Full Moon

Full Moon

Kenneth Lillington. Faber & Faber, $12.95 (136pp) ISBN 978-0-571-13792-3

British critics praise Lillington's supernatural mysteries, of which this eerie and credible tale is among his best. The narrator, John, and his psychically linked twin, Jennifer, worry when their parents inherit Great-Aunt Clara's antique shop. The place is haunted by Clara's ghost and the ghost of her younger sister Alice, who, Jennifer suspects, had been murdered by Clara years earlier. Before her death, the surviving sister had been considered a mad old witch. But Rosalind, a girl the twins' age, comes to the shop and describes Clara as a lonely, frightened woman she had loved and helped. Jealous because John is obviously attracted to Rosalind, Jennifer creates tensions, alleviated only when the truth surfaces at the story's stunning, deeply moving finish. The author's artistry makes one care about all the characters, and glad when the three young people are united in love and friendship at last. (12-up)