Ghost Abbey

Maggi has but one hope when her father is offered a job on the renovation of a stately home in the English countryside of Cheshire. She wants to wrest him away from the influence of blowsy Doris Streeton, who has had her eye on the man since Maggi's mother died. Soon the small family of four (including Maggi's twin brothers, Baz and Gaz) is headed for the 99-room home, where they meet its owner, ``Mzz'' MacFarlane. The house exerts a strange influence on Maggi; she sees a man who could only have lived 400 years ago, and hears noises and singing in other parts of the house. It becomes apparent to her that the house will exact revenge on anyone who tries to harm it, but because no one believes her, Maggi fights for the lives of her family members alone. From the rather glib spelling of Ms. MacFarlane's title, to the contrasting portraits of cheap, lazy Doris-the-manhunter and the hard-working ``little mother'' Maggi (almost half the chapters begin in the kitchen, with Maggi either cooking or cleaning up), Westall's views on women seem to run to type and this weakens the story. But the Cheshire atmosphere and the culminating romance between Maggi's father and McFarlane is well portrayed. Ages 12-up. (Mar.)