'The Lost Treasure' is the second in The Hounds of Penhallow series and it's a lovely story about Polly, a little girl who lives with her mother at historic Penhallow Hall. Her mother has a job as caretaker and Polly has free run of the whole estate. She has no human friends yet as her little family has only recently moved to Penhallow Hall but in the previous book she befriended some of the ghosts of Penhallow Hall. Her best friend is a ghost dog called Rex and there's also a little boy William, who is the ghost of a young man who died in the first World War. In 'The Lost Treasure', Polly and Rex discover that a lot of the statues around Penhallow Hall have ghosts who are closer to the surface now and could be woken. They waken a little Pekinese dog who has been living in one of the Chinese statues and they discover a mystery. Li-Mei was one of two Pekinese and the other dog, Han, vanished without a trace and Li-Mei never knew what happened to him. There is also the mystery of the Green Lady, a ghost that haunted the shoreline and surrounds of Penhallow Hall, and the mystery of one of a pair of statues that is missing. Polly and Rex and the crew must find out what happened to Han, the statue, and who the ghostly Green Lady was.
Like the others in this series, this book is a little bit of history with a little bit of a ghost story mixed in with the universal story of a child trying to find her place in the world after a traumatic event and a sudden relocation. It's sweet rather than scary and the relationships that Polly has with the ghosts, particularly with Rex, are comforting and warm. The writing is powerful and evocative and, as in 'The Storm Dog', the only other book of Holly Webb's that I've read so far, she really connects to a deep sense of place in her writing.
My only issue with this story is that, as in 'The Storm Dog', the story finishes a bit too soon and we don't get to see how the interesting events of the climax really play out in the life of Polly and Penhallow Hall. That's a bit of a disappointment as part of the joy of a story is to relax with all the participants for the epilogue at the end but it's not a big enough disappointment to make me stop reading these books. Holly Webb is a very good writer and I really like her work.
Highly recommended for young readers.
The Lost Treasure: The Hounds of Penhallow Hall, Book 2
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Customer reviews
Top review from Australia
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Wonderfully written, mystery, adventure, with a little bit of a (not very scary) ghost story - highly recommended
Reviewed in Australia on 1 February 2018Top reviews from other countries
Katy
Delightful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 November 2017Verified Purchase
Pippyk
One of the most adventurous books I’ve ever read!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 May 2020Verified Purchase
Kindle Customer
Four Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2018Verified Purchase
