Characters are minimally described, but prior entries and names signal some diversity in the default White cast. Inventive plotting, spooky atmospherics, and quirky humor will keep readers entertained. Eclipsing clowns in sheer creepiness, the mimes are nastily memorable creations. When quick-witted, intrepid Violet is sidelined, cautious, risk-averse Herbie needs a gutsy plan and help from Erwin, the oracular cat, and Clermit, the charming, clockwork hermit crab. Fossil disappears and Shadowghast sightings accumulate, the two put aside differences for dangerous investigations that lead to Sebastian Eels’ empty house and the Netherways, a labyrinth of underground passageways. Violet, Herbie’s fellow orphan, is skeptical-and also worried because her guardian is missing. Caliastra dazzles Herbie claiming she’s his aunt, she invites him to be her assistant. They’re blindsided when charismatic stage magician Caliastra arrives with her agent and two mimes, planning to re-create the story theatrically. Fossil retell these historical events annually. Cheated of payment by Eerie’s duplicitous mayor, the puppet master fed his shadow to the Shadowghast. The holiday commemorates a stranger’s mesmerizing shadow-puppet show in which Eerie townsfolk watched the shadow of a grinning, horned man chase and consume fleeing shadows, human and otherwise. Instead of Halloween, Eerie-on-Sea townsfolk celebrate Ghastly Night, lighting manglewick candles to keep the legendary Shadowghast from stealing their shadows.
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