Another moody ghost story from Aiken, this time set in the late 1930s, Return to Harken House follows the story of eleven-year-old Julia, who is sent to stay with her father for the summer. Mostly left to herself, Julia is horrified when she begins to hear voices. Is she going mad, or do the unusual occurrences have anything to do with Joshua Harkin, the 17th-century mathematician and alchemist who once owned Harken House...?

An entertaining read, especially for intermediate readers who like to read suspenseful ghost stories with a hint of real menace. The ghostly elements of this story are nicely mirrored by the historical menace of the times, as Julia ruminates on the dangers of Hitler, whom she sees as a sort of spider, spreading his web out over Europe.

Note: this title was originally published in the UK as Voices ( )