Darkest Hour (The Mediator #4)
Grades 7-10--The fourth installment in this series finds Suze spending her summer baby-sitting at the Pebble Beach Hotel and Golf Resort in California. Her stepbrother and stepfather discover a skeleton while digging a hole in their backyard. Suze is a typical 16-year-old-except that she can see and communicate with ghosts. Her troubles include tending to a shy baby-sitting charge; wondering if she can possibly feel "the L word" for Jesse, the hot 150-year-old ghost that shares her bedroom; and having the ghost of Jesse's fianc‚e hold a knife to her throat. Carroll's creative storytelling ability is proven in a dramatic exorcism scene and in an encounter with a purgatory guard who is a Russell Crowe look-alike. Although almost every male in this book is a "hottie" and coincidences abound (her baby-sitting charge is a mediator, as is her high school principal, Father Dominic), the plot development is steady and, if not always believable, it is satisfying. Readers familiar with this series will love the evolving romance with Jesse and solving the identity of the skeleton and the murderer. Despite occasional copyediting mistakes, this entertaining read will thrill fans of R. L. Stine's "Fear Street" series and the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" books (both Archway).Debbie Stewart, Grand Rapids Public Library, MICopyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.