Haunted

Winner:  Arthur Ellis Crime Award for Best Juvenile Fiction

Dee is feeding the chickens the morning they discover the bones on the mountain. Something doesn’t feel right – and her feeling is confirmed when local police show her a ring that they found with the bones; a ring belonging to Mary Ann Simpson, who had disappeared four years ago. Other girls, Dee discovers, have disappeared too, unusual for a small town nestled in the shadow of the Bruce Peninsula’s rugged escarpment, the “mountain” that Dee loves.

Like her Gran, Dee has “the Sight,” an ability not only to see spirits from the after life, but also to experience their deaths –an experience that becomes more horrifying as the story takes darker turns. While trying to help local police with the investigation, Dee is drawn into a deepening mystery that soon strikes terrifyingly close to home.

Set in the aftermath of World War I, where soldiers are returning to a society that doesn’t know the full horrors of what they went through, Haunted is an atmospheric story that will haunt readers long after they finish reading.

Excerpt:

Unable to look away, Dee stared at the small bumps beneath the sheet but couldn’t make sense of either a human or animal body. She shivered suddenly and glanced away from the bones. That was when she saw the pillar of opaque black, churning on the path behind the men. Unaware, they must have carried the bones right past it, unless… unless it had followed them down from the mountain.

“Gran,” she whispered.

“Be still,” her grandmother murmured.

—From Haunted

Awards:

Winner:  Arthur Ellis Crime Award for Best Juvenile Fiction

Nominee:  Willow Awards

                    Red Maple Award

Reviews:

Dee is an intriguing heroine surrounded by a rich and diverse cast of supporting characters. . .

Quill and Quire

“Creepiness and dread build forcibly as this spooky tale of predation and murder
builds toward its moments of revelation.

The Toronto Star

 Barbara Haworth-Attard writes a well-plotted mystery, spooky without being
terrifying, and full of authentic atmosphere and well-drawn characters.”

Canadian Children’s Book News

Attard renders the place and time authentically and conveys much about women’s
lives in the so-called “good old days” and the impact of World War I upon
ordinary Canadians. In Haunted, she scares us while quietly educating
us. Highly Recommended.

CM Magazine

Here are some interesting books about murder and policing in late 1800- early 1900’s, you might want to read!

Fit To Be Tied, Ontario’s Murderous Past By Terry Boyle

Caring and Curing Historical Perspectives on Women and Healing in Canada By Dianne Dodd and Deborah Gorham

On The Beat: 150 Years of Policing in London Ontario By Mark Richardson, Research by John Lisowski

A picture of Websters Falls.