Ghosts of Greenglass House

It's Christmas at Greenglass House again, and Milo is looking forward to a traditional Nagspeake holiday at the cliffside smugglers' inn run by his adoptive parents. But then Clem and Georgie, the young women thieves who helped make last Christmas so hair-raising (Greenglass House, rev. 9/14), arrive flush with loot from a heist gone wrong and pursued by a double-crossing associate. Unfortunately, the object they'd most wished to secure in the heist, a movable navigational map created by the formidable late smuggler Violet Cross, is missing. Milo is relieved when Meddy, the ghostly girl who helped him solve last Christmas's mystery, reappears and guides him in forming yet another alter ego from the role-playing game Odd Trails. Like Negret, the character Milo created the year before, Tengfei helps Milo handle his social anxiety, honor his Chinese ancestry, and penetrate the motives of the inn's idiosyncratic guests. Working on many levels, Milford delivers a head-scratching mystery, an eerie ghost story, hints of romance, and tales within tales that explore the (fictional) history of Nagspeake. Zollars's chapter-heading vignette illustrations honor the many overlapping layers that make up the story, from kid-friendly make-believe to curious artifacts of a forgotten age. And when it all comes together at the satisfying climax, readers might go straight back to the beginning to read the book again. anita l. burkam