The Haunting of Old Splinter - Hardcover

Mackay, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593693868 ISBN 13: 9780593693865

Verlag: Viking Childrens Books, 2026

Inhaltsangabe

Innocent wishes turn decidedly sinister in this chilling horror for fans of Katherine Arden and R. L. Stine.

Peter and his half brother, Adrian, live in the shadow of Old Splinter—a formerly lavish estate now in ruins. Rumored to have once housed an eccentric magician, it’s now home to little more than spiderwebs and mold. Tasked with renovating the crumbling mansion on behalf of their wealthy uncle, Peter’s stepdad is at his wits’ end. And the cracks are beginning to show in their once-happy cottage.

A mysterious local legend may be their only hope. The wishing claw, a magical hand that grants your deepest desires, has spell-bound townsfolk for centuries. If it’s real—if he can find it—then Peter might just save his family! But wishes are tricky things and they always come with a price. What starts innocently enough soon unearths much more than Peter bargained for, including a dark secret lurking in the walls of the mansion…and a monstrous hunger that comes knocking at his door.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Jack Mackay is a writer, theater-maker and horror enthusiast. Though he’s currently floating around somewhere near York, his heart is in the Midlands, in his grandparents’ creaky old house. He has written stories since he was four years old. He is also the co-founder of Griffonage Theatre, a York-based company with a taste for the madcap and macabre. He loves his family, his dog, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and K-pop.

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1The Magician

It was all Uncle Lawrence’s fault.

That was what Peter would tell himself, over and over, but there were several people who were to blame for what happened. George, for moving them to Old Splinter in the first place. Alfie, for telling them the story. Adrian, for believing it.

But more than anyone, Peter blamed himself. It was his foolishness that had caused it.

His terrible mistake.It began on the coldest, wettest day of a cold, wet summer. Peter Carney and Adrian Lee were walking home from the park, hands tucked into the pockets of their anoraks.

“I’m bleeding,” said Adrian. “I don’t want anyone to see.”

“Chin up,” said Peter.

“That’s the problem, Pete. It’s my chin that’s bleeding.”

The boys were walking down the main road toward their end of town. They had lived in Barghest-on-the-Moor (“Barghest,” for short), with its streams and bridges and brightly colored doors, for a year now. Dry-stone walls divided the surrounding fields into a patchwork of greens and purples, but today the heavy cloud turned everything a shade grayer.

“Mom and Dad are going to be so upset,” Adrian groaned.

Peter and Adrian were half brothers, although they rarely acknowledged the “half” part. They saw no reason to behave as if they were anything other than just brothers. True, you couldn’t always tell from a glance that they were related. Peter was lanky while Adrian was stocky. Peter’s hair was light brown while Adrian’s was jet black. Peter was pale while Adrian had olive skin that never seemed to burn. Only when they stood next to each other could you see the likeness in the shape of their noses and the corners of their mouths. Nevertheless, they were practically inseparable. Wherever Peter went, Adrian’s red woolen beanie would always be bobbing along not far behind.

“It’ll be okay,” said Peter. “Mom will get you a plaster and George will have a word with Mr. Horner.”

“You called him George,” Adrian said pointedly.

“Ah, sorry. Force of habit.”

Peter had agreed not to call his stepfather by his first name in front of his younger brother. Adrian couldn’t understand why Peter had such trouble with the word “Dad” because, unlike Peter, he only had one. Peter’s other dad, Robert, lived only an hour or so away in Leeds.

“I won’t say it was Jethro,” said Adrian. “I’ll just say I tripped and fell on a rock, which is only half a lie.” The mark on his chin was an angry shade of scarlet. They had been hanging out in the park when before he had even realized he was there, Jethro had stuck out his foot and Adrian had tripped, hitting his chin on a rock.

“If you tell Dad that Jethro has been pushing you around again, he’ll get straight in the van and go over to their house,” said Peter.

“That’s what I’m afraid of. Jethro’s dad can’t control him. If I snitch, it’ll just get worse.”

“I think you should tell Mom at least.” Adrian shook his head. “Fine. I won’t force you. But if Jethro does anything like this again, I’ll tell her myself.”

“Okay,” said Adrian. They walked a little farther along the path, loose stones crunching under their mud-spattered shoes. “Were you ever bullied?” he asked.

“A little. The boys at my old school used to laugh at me during PE. I look clumsy when I run, so they called me Bambi. But other than that, they mostly ignored me. I haven’t had any problems here yet. I think I’ve mastered how to blend in.”

“Like a gecko,” said Adrian eagerly. “Or a rattlesnake. Or Spring-Heeled Jack.”

“Who?”

“Spring-Heeled Jack,” Adrian repeated. “He blends into the shadows and then jumps out at people on the street. He’s got claws and glowing yellow eyes like balls of fire, and he can leap really high, which is why they call him ‘Spring-Heeled.’  At night, he jumps onto rooftops and peers through the windows of naughty children to scare them. I read about him in Ghastliest Tales. Issue thirteen, the one with the Edgar Allan Poe story. You remember the one I told you about, where the man gets buried in the wall?”

“ ‘The Black Cat’?”

“No, that’s the one where he walls up his wife’s corpse in the basement. I mean ‘The Cask of Amontillado.’ The main character buries his friend alive in a wine cellar.”

“His friend? Why would he do that?”

Adrian shrugged. “For revenge.”

“Doesn’t sound very friendly to me. Why do you read this stuff, Adrian? You’ll give yourself nightmares.”

“Mom read horror comics when she was my age.”

“You hide behind the sofa when Doctor  Who is on.”

“Not anymore. I’m getting older. I can handle it now.”

The street led them past the town hall. In the parking lot, there was a large steel bin where locals could donate unwanted clothes to charity. It was shaped like a purple monster, with the sliding deposit slot painted to look like its mouth. The boys wandered over to the bin, and Adrian jumped up to pull on the handle. It creaked open, and a man’s voice came out.

“All right, lads?” said the voice.

The door on the side of the clothes bin opened up and a man’s face peered out. It was a weathered, leathery face, slightly pinched but with friendly crinkles around the eyes. His mane of blondish hair was paired with a bristly beard, which was starting to turn gray. The familiar smell of old blankets drifted out of the bin.

“Hello, Alfie,” said Adrian. “What are you reading?”

Alfie’s smile was crooked, and one blue eye stared off to the side, giving him a slightly lopsided look. He brandished the book in his hand.

“Uncle Silas,” he said. “Something dark to match the weather.”

Peter and Adrian, having always got on best with each other, found it difficult to mix with the other kids at school, whose interests seemed so alien to theirs. Since moving to Barghest, their parents had encouraged them to try to make friends. They were not expecting the first and best of these friends to be the middle-aged man who lived in a parking lot clothes bin.

A few weeks after moving in, the boys had gone to the bin with a bag full of old pajamas they had outgrown. When they tossed the clothes into the deposit slot, a gravelly voice from inside growled, “Delicious!” Startled, the boys saw that the bin was unlocked and opened it to find Alfie inside, wrapped up in his blankets and shaking with laughter. He apologized for frightening them, only he liked to put on a monster’s voice to play jokes on passersby. “They think the bin is talking to them,” he’d said. “It’s hilarious.”

After that, Adrian took to stopping by the bin whenever he could. He shrugged off their parents’ concerns, insisting, “Alfie has an honest face. And he tells such interesting stories.” Mom and George came to accept that there wasn’t much they could do to prevent Adrian from seeing Alfie, but George insisted that Peter always be there to supervise, just in case.

The more time they spent together, the more Peter saw there was nothing to be afraid of. Alfie was generous and kind, but he was also a...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Viking Childrens Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2026
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593693868
• ISBN 13: 9780593693865
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 272
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: VTech Electronics Europe B.V; https://www.vtech-jouets.com/; ; Fahrenheitstraat 22; DC Weert; 6003; Niederlande