The Voice Upstairs
In 1920 England, Wilhelmina “Wil” Price’s deathsense—her ability to sense a person’s death hours to days before it happens—has made her an outcast in her small village. Her only friend, Edison Summerfield, youngest son of Lord Summerfield, begs Wil to try to commune with the soul of his older brother who died in the Great War, but Wil has never been able to reach Peter, only the spirit of her own long-gone mother. When a maid at Wither Grange drowns in the millpond, exactly as Wil’s mother died, Wil goes against her grandfather’s wishes and takes a position as housemaid at the Grange to investigate if the two women’s deaths were far from accidental. Wither Grange, the Summerfield family, and Wil’s own grandfather all hold tight to their secrets. Wil and Edison face danger from ghosts and murderers alike before they are able to expose the secrets.
The Voice Upstairs is filled with eerie atmosphere, twists and turns, creepy fog, and long-buried secrets, the truths of which could ruin even the innocent. The friendship between Wil and Ed is built on childhoods filled with loneliness—he craves approval from parents determined not to give it, while she, since the death of her mother, is in the care of her reserved grandfather. Their budding romance is charming and far from smooth as each takes care with the other’s feelings. The scenes of Wil’s visits into the space between the worlds of the dead and the living are atmospheric and chilling. Written for readers fourteen and up, The Voice Upstairs is more than a mystery/ghost story, it’s also about family ties and tensions. It’s an unputdownable read with more than one I-didn’t-see-this-coming plot twist.
