With the debut of Marvel's latest series on Disney+, She Hulk, I thought there might be some interest in law-oriented middle grade fiction, and this fits the bill, perfectly!
It's also great for October, as it features ghosts and other ghoulies and it's a little bit spooky and kinda creepy, but not terribly.
Elizabeth Webster's step-father is an attorney, and so is her father, but she has no idea of her family heritage on the Webster, or her father's, side.
And she tends to be a bit…argumentative, shall we say? In a good way, though. A nerdy, book-ish way.
All she knows is she hasn't seen her dad in forever, years, in fact, and no one seems to know where he went after his last case. Her mom doesn't want Elizabeth to have anything to do with her father or the Websters. Period.
A star athlete at school, Henry Harrison, asks Elizabeth to tutor him. Elizabeth quickly learns he's haunted – by a beautiful ghost who whispered Elizabeth's name to Henry, which is why he really asked Elizabeth to tutor him. He wants her to get rid of the ghost, make her stop haunting him.
Elizabeth has no idea how to do that, but she tracks down her grandfather in an abandoned-to-all-except-the-damned building. He's the sole remaining member of the Webster family law firm, Webster & Son, Attorneys for the Damned. The lawfirm's name strikes Elizabeth as extremely sexist, but at least her grandfather tells her how to start the legal proceedings to evict the ghost from Henry's house.
That's right, there's a legal court for these paranormal disputes. An otherworldly court, one with judges, rules and procedures, precedents and case law. It's called The Court of Uncommon Pleas. And her father disappeared while on a case for it. One involving a demon, a very nasty, very litigious demon.
Once the ghost kisses Henry, he's besotted, totally against his will. Elizabeth must see Henry's ghost's eviction through to the end to free him and save her father from the demon's clutches, or it could be the end of the Webster law firm. Forever.
This book is well-written, and there's a lot of legal concepts (habeas corpus is the main one in this first book) that get explained and explored, without dumbing them down for young readers. Any reader who loves the law, or wants to learn more about it, will enjoy this!
