Gilda Joyce: The Ghost Sonata Book

When her best friend, Wendy Choy, qualifies to compete in an international piano competition in Oxford, England, irrepressible Gilda Joyce finds a way to get an invitation ...

VOYA

Psychic investigator Gilda Joyce is determined to accompany her best friend, Wendy Choy, to England where she has been invited to participate in The Young International Virtuosos piano competition. Gilda jumps at the chance to be Wendy's page turner. Off they go to Oxford with teacher Mrs. Mendelovich and two other piano students. Before boarding the airplane, Gilda does a tarot card reading for Wendy to calm her down, but unfortunately all the cards are ominous. They show the number nine and death. Upon landing in England, they hurry to Wyntle House, a Victorian guesthouse that does not even have a piano. Wendy is horrified to find that her room is number nine. She cannot sleep, hears a piano playing, and even finds the number nine etched in the frost on her window. Gilda begins her high-powered investigation and discovers that a ghost is haunting not only her best friend but the entire competition. The ghost leads them to the grave of Charles Drummond, a young protTgT who died when he was only fourteen. Why has Charles chosen Wendy to haunt and what does he want her to do to let him rest in peace? Gilda is a spunky, quirky, very likeable young lady with a sense of humor if not a great sense of fashion. There are several interesting threads in this novel that are not as fully developed as they could be and some unsatisfactory endings, but overall it is a lighthearted, comic romp of a mystery, a genre often neglected in middle school fiction. This third title in the Gilda Joyce series stands alone, but prior knowledge of Gilda and her psychic powers would be helpful.