Cassidy Blake is still following her parents around while they film their show “The Inspecters” (that pun will never stop irritating me), and this time they are in Paris visiting some of the most haunted areas of the city. Cassidy and her ghost buddy Jacob naturally attract the attention of a spirit which causes trouble until figure out how to stop it. Hilarity ensues.
I like the premise in that it is real historical ghost history being used for this novel, as it was for the sequel. What bugs me a little is that several of the more famous places don’t get much attention because Cassidy decides to ditch those filmings to work on the mystery of what she may have set loose and how to stop it. There is so much possibility and really only focusing on the Catacombs which yes is a very big deal and it makes sense to include a lot of them is still sort of an injustice to the city.
The other things that bothered just a little is how very little attention is given to how the troublemaking poltergeist is set loose; it’s just suddenly there. Yes, there is some vague attempt at explanation but it’s really overlooked, which for me means that there isn’t much motive for a lot of what happens next. Yes, there are reasons given later to help explain but that doesn’t help for a good chunk of the story. The story also really doesn’t give much attention to the local film crew, siblings Anton and Anette, which could have been a lost opportunity for further amusement. Why bring them up every now and again if they don’t do much or add much to the story? I realize that this is middle grade, but still, pre-teens still like world building details and amusement like that right? I hope that hasn’t changed in the 25 years or so since that was me.
I did like that Lara was still there at least over the phone, Grim actually has a few kitty appearances although I still don’t understand why you would want to drag your cat all over the world for your summer vacation as opposed to hire a kitty sitter or kitty hotel, and the adult helper (name is spoilerish) and new local friend Adele add some new blood so to speak. It was also interesting to learn more about Jacob, although there are definitely hints that there’s eventually going to be something bigger about him. I also like that Cassidy’s camera is still something of a factor, but again as with the first novel it only really makes an appearance at the end. Those bits are always so interesting, but I kind wish there would be more to it.
This is still a good story and series and maybe I’m just getting old, but I keep wanting so much more out of it. I have little hope that the tv adaptation will fix that since it sounds like that’s going to make some big character etc changes, so I guess I’ll just have to get over it. But seriously, is it just me on the missing world details?