The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón

'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title. When fourteen-year-old Irene Sauvelle moves with her. Anything he does for quite a while will garner a good deal of interest. A chilling, compelling mystery from the internationally bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Zaf�n is still cruising off the might of the international best-sellers The Shadow of the Wind (2004) and The Angel’s Game (2009). And what of the legend of the woman who drowned in the lagoon? Though there is probably one mystery too many here, Zaf�n cuts between his various characters with cinematic skill, and his habit of telling stories within the narrative is put to spine-tingling use, just as it was with The Midnight Palace (2011).

Just as frightening is the personless shadow giving chase to Irene and her little brother. He’s a kindly eccentric, but the grinning automatons populating his castle carry an air of menace. Fourteen-year-old Irene’s penniless mother has just won the jackpot: she’s been hired to keep house at Cravenmoore, the estate of reclusive toymaker Lazarus Jann. Hyde-with a little bit of ventriloquist-dummy horror thrown in for good measure. Mostly, though, this is a cunning twist on Dr. Ages 12–up.First published in Spain in 1995, this early work from Zaf�n hits all the gothic horror bases: creepy castles, foreboding caves, haunted lighthouses, murky woods, masked balls, and just about everything else you might hope for. There are plenty of thrills and chills, however, and this book should please readers who like to be scared, but aren’t looking for overtly graphic violence.

Unfortunately, Jann-mad scientist and demon toymaker rolled into one-is too much, a character seemingly drawn straight out of Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann. Zafón’s pre-WWII French setting is nicely realized, and his romantic leads are entirely believable. Irene, to her delight, soon finds a boyfriend and kindred soul in Ismael, a handsome young fisherman, but in the wake of a brutal murder, Irene and Ismael discover that Jann is not what he seems and that mysterious dangers haunt both the mansion and the surrounding forest. Madame Sauvelle has been hired as housekeeper and secretary at Cravenmoore, the mansion of the kindly, but reclusive genius Lazarus Jann, one of the greatest toymakers in the world. In this exciting, if somewhat over-the-top Gothic thriller, originally published in 1995, 14-year-old Irene Sauvelle, her younger brother, and their widowed mother relocate from Paris to the coast of Normandy in 1937.

The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón