This is a Book 2 and I picked it up for a Halloween scary-story, ghost read.
At the beginning, there's a few references to what happened to the three main characters, kids Coco, Brian and Ollie, and their history with the villain ghost, Seth, who follows them to the new setting for terror, a haunted orphanage turned ski lodge, Mount Hemlock. But this is totally readable on its own.
It starts when the a snow storm hits, on the way to a weekend outing at the Lodge. A boy in snow clothes nearly causes an accident on the way in, but the kids' parents still manage to get the car to the lodge (I'm having The Shining flashbacks, as I write this...). A Mr. Voland is the only other person to arrive after the storm hits, and the power promptly goes out, and the generators "won't work." They huddle around a fireplace in the lobby to sleep that night. The parents are there, but useless, as they're put to sleep through the whole ordeal.
One of the kids sees a little girl ghost, who warns them not to listen to the "dead voices" or open closet doors, and implies she's looking for her "bones." So, of course, that's what one of them does, right away -- and soon they're trying to help her find her "bones." Mr. Voland tells the kids the lodge's horrible backstory.
But all is not as it seems. In fact, Mr. Voland may be doing nothing more than setting the stage for the other ghost, Mother Hemlock, to grab one of the kids through a mirror and try to hold her captive, as she did to the orphanage kids before she died.
Together, the kids have to figure out how to rescue their friend (save herself) and win this chess game of terror. It ends with an invitation to "play again," and I'm looking forward to the sequel!
