Constable & Toop

British author Jones (the Ninja Meerkats series) offers a witty take on Victorian ghost stories that mixes dark humor and satire with an almost traditional boy’s adventure format. Sam Toop is the son of an undertaker, and has, after years of being exposed to the dead, become a “Talker,” who can see and hear ghosts. When an amoral exorcist starts banishing ghosts in London, the places they’d previously haunted become corrupt and eerie to the living, a situation that can only be fixed when a new ghost is trapped there. A ghostly bureaucrat named Lapsewood investigates, and his attempts to fix the problem lands him in ghost prison and leads to Sam’s violent uncle, Jack, being enlisted to help find new ghosts—something he decides is easiest if he creates the ghosts himself. From the often hilarious and inept ghostly bureaucracy to Jack’s grisly murders and the horror of innocent ghosts being banished, Jones casts a wide net. As a result, the novel can ramble, but Jones’s vision and verve give it heaps of charm. Ages 10–14. (Oct.)