Ninth Key

This is another in the series called The Mediator about Susannah Simon, a teen-age girl that has the ability to see and talk to the dead. The problem for her is that the ghosts need her to do something for them or at times want to do something to her. Trying to help ghosts "move on" to whatever is next is a very difficult task for Susannah.

This novel starts off with the ghost of a woman literally screaming right next to Susannah's bed, a bed she had been sleeping soundly in until the ghost started up. The ghost wants Susannah to tell someone that her death was not his fault. Unfortunately the ghost only gives the name of Red as the person Susannah is supposed to talk to; not exactly the most detailed information to start out with.

Susannah learns that the Red she is looking for is Thaddeus Beaumont, a local real-estate developer. Susannah starts off by calling him, but all she gets is a secretary and Beaumont never calls back. She tries again later but this time she only gets Tad Beaumont, the son.

Jesse, the male ghost that she has a crush on, warns her about what is happening after the woman's ghost makes a second appearance. Susannah decides to go in person to Beaumont's home. She enters what ends up appearing like some super-secret hideout, complete with a mysterious room when she gets to meet Thaddeus Beaumont in person.

Matters become even more complicated as Susannah continues to suspect Thaddeus to be a killer but ends up falling for Tad and actually gets her first kiss ever from him. Then they get even more complicated when Father Dominic, the principal of the school where Susannah goes and her mentor on mediating suspects that Thaddeus Beaumont is really a vampire.

Then some research reveals that Thaddeus Beaumont may be responsible not for one murder but for at least two others. Something which doesn't go over too well when Susannah comes home one day and finds Thaddeus Beaumont there having tea with her mother.

Later Susannah and Beaumont meet again but under much more ominous conditions. Things get worse quickly and it appears that Susannah kills Beaumont by trying to stake him with a wooden pencil.

He's not dead, though, but Susannah has one of the funniest descriptions of him: "...Tad's father was clearly a few fries short of a Happy Meal."

Reenter the ghost and enter a new problem. Red is not the person Susannah thinks is red.

Then things speed up really quickly and it looks more like a James Bond -type of story.

So Susannah has to avoid being killed, find the real Red, try to see where she stands with Tad and deal with Jesse, all at the same time.

This is another excellent book in the series. Things get complex, just like in real life. Susannah, much like Buffy, has to balance a number of conflicting things and at the same time not really reveal what is going on in her life to her mother. Definitely a book well worth reading.

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