Some doors are locked for a reason.
Leo expected a long, dull summer at his Great-Aunt Mildred's rambling old house, the kind of house that seems to take slow, groaning breaths beneath your feet. What he did not expect was the attic. Or the small black door tucked into its darkest corner, a door with no handle and a single rusted keyhole, behind which a sweet and terribly sad little tune is playing. A tune that wants him to sit down, close his eyes, and listen forever.
Then a cracked porcelain doll opens her one blue eye and tells him the truth. Her name is Elspeth. The house remembers everything that has ever happened inside it, every echo and every loss. And something in the dark behind that door is hungry.
Armed with nothing but a rusty iron key and a doll who may or may not be his friend, Leo sets out to learn what the house is hiding before it makes him forget the way back out. But every answer opens another door. Down past the cellar, where old regrets are bottled up like jam. Out into the whispering woods, where the roots are waking and a buried king is stirring. And always, at the edge of it, Great-Aunt Mildred, pouring lemonade and pretending not to notice. A woman who knows exactly what lives in her house, and has spent a lifetime keeping its secrets.
She isn't telling. And she has set a fourth glass at the table for a reason.
The Keymaster Legacy begins here, in the summer an ordinary boy discovers he is the only thing standing between a quiet old house and the collapse of everything inside it. Volume One gathers the first two adventures, The House that Doesn't Forget and The Root-Bound King: a complete, standalone story, and the doorway into a much larger saga.
Perfect for middle-grade readers ages 8 to 12 who love a house full of secrets, a hero who leads with his heart, and the particular thrill of a story that is cozy and creepy in equal measure. For young readers who were kept up past bedtime by Coraline, Doll Bones, and The House with a Clock in Its Walls.
Step carefully. Once you open a hidden door, you can't un-see what's inside.