The Turnkey of Highgate Cemetery

Gr 4–7-Flossie, a 12-year-old ghost with an outgoing personality, serves as a turnkey for London's Highgate cemetery in 1940. Flossie manages the dead in her care and helps assess a mysterious situation: the ghost of an SS officer roaming the city's streets. Flossie investigates the Nazi spirit's presence in London and seeks to foil his evil plot with the help of fellow turnkeys. Readers see Flossie grow out of her insecurity and unresolved grief about her father's death and develop into a self-assured protagonist. Themes of family and love permeate this supernatural novel. Rushby builds suspense throughout, culminating in a heart-pounding climactic scene. The supernatural elements, like the way the dead interact with one another and the living, generally work better than the historical ones; descriptions of places and events feel intrusive and contrived at times.