Posted on by TracyC

The Mystery of the Haunted Trail

MysteryHauntedTrailThe Mystery of the Haunted Trail by Janet Lorimer, 1989.

Brian Kelly wasn’t too excited at first when his teacher assigned his class to write letters to students at a school in Hawaii.  He doesn’t really like to write, and the whole thing sounded boring, but it turned out to be pretty fun when his new pen pal, Alani, wrote back.  Brian discovered that he and Alani had a lot in common, and he even got to meet Alani when his family came to California on a trip.  Then, best of all, Alani’s family invited Brian to spend part of the summer with them in Hawaii!

Brian loves Hawaii from the moment he arrives.  Alani’s family lives in a rural area near Kalawa.  All of the families in the area raise their own vegetables and keep animals.  They depend on what they earn from selling food although some of them, like Alani’s mother, who is a nurse, have other jobs as well.  Alani’s father, like Alani’s grandfather, is primarily a farmer.  Alani’s grandfather lives with him on land that the family has owned for generations.

Alani and his family enjoy showing Brian around their island and talking about the history of the place.  Brian particularly likes the stories that Alani’s grandfather, who they call Kupuna, tells them, although some of them are frightening.  At the luau that the family and their friends have to welcome Brian to Hawaii, Brian overhears people talking about the Night Marchers.  They say that the Night Marchers have been seen recently and that bad things have been happening in the area, like crops dying and the nearby stream starting to dry up.  Some people seem to think that it’s a sign of bad luck and that maybe they should move away from the area.

According to Kupuna, the Night Marchers are a ghostly parade of the ancestors of the people who have lived there for generations.  Sometimes, it’s just ordinary people and sometimes it’s the souls of warriors.  Sometimes, Hawaiian gods may even walk among them.  But, when they march, any living person must either flee from them or, if that is impossible, they must lie down and hide their eyes.  At the head of the Marchers is a ghostly spearman who will strike down any living person who sees them, unless that person is related to one of the Marchers themselves.  They spare members of their own families.  People who are struck by the spear of the Marchers appear to have died of a heart attack.

The place where the Marchers supposedly walk is an old trail that leads to a sacred place where Alani’s ancestors are buried.  Brian is curious to see the place, but Alani warns him away, saying that they are not allowed to go there because it’s too dangerous.  However, Brian soon sees the Marchers himself one night in Alani’s family’s fields, and the next day, their crops are dead.  When Brian notices strange footprints in the fields as well, he realizes that some living people may be responsible for the awful things that have been happening in the area, but the only way he can prove it would be to explore the haunted trail himself and track the “ghosts” to their lair.

Janet Lorimer’s books are interesting because they are often a combination of mystery and ghost story.  There are logical explanations and living villains who are responsible for the things that are happening to Alani’s family and their neighbors, but there is also a definite supernatural element to the story as well.  Telling you where one ends and the other begins may be saying too much.  It may be more fun to let you find out yourself.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Ghost in the Tokaido Inn

ghosttokaidoinnThe Ghost in the Tokaido Inn by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, 1999.

In feudal Japan, more specifically in 1735, the family you were born into determined what you were meant to be in life.  Samurai were born into families of samurai, and merchants were born into merchant families.

This is a terrible disappointment to Seikei, the fourteen-year-old son of a tea merchant, who would love nothing more than to be able to become a samurai.  He has studied the samurais and their ideals and greatly admires their bravery.  He even loves to write poetry, as the samurais do.

One day, Seikei accompanies his father on a business trip from their home in Osaka to Edo (the old name for Tokyo).  On their way, they stay overnight at an inn.  There, Seikei makes friends with the daughter of a paper merchant, and she entertains him with a ghost story.  During the night, Seikei sees a strange figure that attempts to enter his room, which he fears might be an evil spirit (like the one in the ghost story), but he is unable to get a good look at it before it disappears.

The next morning, Lord Hakuseki, a daimyo (lord, nobleman) also staying at the inn, says that a jewel was stolen from him during the night.  The famous Judge Ooka comes to the inn to investigate the crime.  The paper merchant and his daughter are accused of the theft because the jewel is found among their belongings.  Seikei recognizes the jewel as one that Lord Hakuseki showed to both him and the girl the night before when they each went to show him their fathers’ wares, and he also realizes that he saw the “evil spirit” holding it.

When Seikei tells Judge Ooka all of this, his father is angry, saying that Seikei must have imagined the whole thing.  However, Judge Ooka believes him.  He points out that the silent figure was no doubt the thief, who merely looked like an evil spirit to the boy who had just been startled awake, with a ghost story still on his mind.  Judge Ooka is also impressed with Seikei’s bravery when Seikei describes how he got up to try to get a better look at the figure, even though he believed that it was an evil spirit at the time.

Judge Ooka recruits Seikei to help him further investigate the crime, and they realize that the theft is only part of a much larger and more serious plot of revenge.  Judge Ooka, himself of the samurai class, also understands Seikei’s feelings better than his father does.  In the end, he offers Seikei a way of living the kind of life that he’s always dreamed.

This book is the first in a series.  Judge Ooka was a real, historical figure, although Seikei, his adopted son, is fictional.  Because the story contains violence and some religious oppression, I recommend it for middle school level readers.  The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.