The Crowfield Curse by Pat Walsh

I absolutely loved this book and read it in two sittings. I am going to suggest that A reads it, although I wonder if she may be a little scared. She is v sensitive though, so I would say 8+ in general for age-appropriateness, and about 10+ for reading age. There's quite a lot of specialist vocab in it, as it is set in a monastery in the middle ages.

The Crowfield Curse has lots of ingredients that make a story I love: a historical, spooky setting, monks (both kind and evil), mysterious strangers, and a loveable, but not perfect, hero. I absolutely love the Matthew Shardlake books by CJ Sansome, and it reminded me a tiny bit of those, because the setting was vividly described and interesting. Obviously there is more magic and less murder, politics and sex in The Crowfield Curse.

There were several interesting twists in the tale, and the story seemed to be set up for a sequel which, I for one, would definitely be reading. In fact, having just checked Amazon, I notice that there is, in fact, already a sequel. Darn that one-click facility...