Henry & Eva and the Castle on the Cliff by Andrea Portes (review)

Narrator Eva and her genius younger brother, Henry, are mourning the death of their parents in a boating accident and trying to cope with the change as their guardian, Uncle Claude, and his girlfriend Terri move in to their old Victorian house to take charge. The kids peg Terri as a social-climbing golddigger and Uncle Claude as a work-obsessed real estate developer, but after a quintet of family ghosts tips them off to the fact that their parents' death was murder, Claude looks a lot more sinister. Evidence mounts against him as the kids locate wreckage of the doomed boat, and motive is suggested by a high-rise model in Claude's office that's set on the site of the house they have just inherited. Fortunately, the more convivial Uncle Finn arrives, and the kids have an ally in their plans to expose Claude and his evil schemes; things begin to turn deadly, but not in the way the siblings expect. Whether readers are similarly blindsided depends on previous whodunnit immersion. Mystery fans will quickly sniff out the red herrings, eliminate extraneous players, and nail the villain without breaking a sweat, but for kids new to the genre, learning the basics of misdirection and the big reveal will be a most pleasant challenge. EB