By Cornelia Funke, published by Orion.

Eleven year old Jon is living with his siters, mother and awful soon-to-be-step-father (nicknamed The Beard!) when his mum decides to send him to a train-journey-away boarding school in Salisbury. He reluctantly joins the school, and on his first night there three ghosts on horseback appear at his window! Jon discovers that his anscestors, the Hartgill family, had a dark past in Salisbury involving an an evil man who is now in Salisbury in a ghost form, hunting down any male man going by the name of Hartgill. Then Jon meets Ella- a girl who has had a history with and grew up knowing about ghosts. She leads his to a long dead knight in Salisbury cathedral called Longespee, in the hopes that he can destory the ghosts after Jon. Can Jon escape the clutches of the evil horse riding ghosts… and claim Longespee’s long lost heart for him?

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

I recieved this for Christmas last year and seeing it on my book shelf two days ago, I picked this up not knowing anything about the plot. I read it in, collectively, a few hours… and it was so brilliant! Jon made a great protagonist, whose background and personality was very well developed before he’d even gotten off of the train in Salisbury. He has got to be the most adventurous eleven year old I’ve ever read about! Ella was a really fun character, too. Her background was well planned… and the way her family intertwined with Jon’s family was a really genius, unexpected plot twist. I think her personality and role in the story could’ve been a bit bigger, however. The ghosts, who played a big role in the story, were seriously imaginative, fun to read about, and above all… Based on real people! Yep, Longespee was a real Knight (Although I’m not sure he wanders Salisbury looking for his heart at the moment). I think the touch of historical reality really brought this story to life.

The plot was brilliantly laid out, and very well written with an excellent, solid structure. Although this book was quite short (There were alot of pages, but the text was quite big and there were illustrations) the events all tied together really well. There were some genius plot twists, like, as mentioned before, how Jon finds out that Ella is actually the niece of The Beard! That was a great twist which really livened up the story, and changed the way Jon solved all of his mysteries.

Overall, Ghost Knight is another brilliant masterpiece to come from Cornelia Funke. It’s a great read for children aged around ten- but I enjoyed it too. It has some absolutely brilliant accompanying illustrations too, and being partly historically accurate, this book was a really enjoyable read!